Word: britishers
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...focus this weekend on attacks on Baghdad has now turned towards Basra, violence has surged for weeks throughout the Shi'ite south, where Americans have suffered fresh losses in old haunts in the cities of Nasiriyah, Hilla and Diwaniyah. Meanwhile, the Shi'ite infighting in Basra has forced British forces to stall the planned withdrawal of some 1,500 troops. Some 4,000 British troops have been hunkered down at the Basra airport after turning the city over to Iraqi forces last year. So far they have not been drawn from their base into this week's fighting there...
They may have looked like supplicants but their questions were not conciliatory. The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked McCain to clarify for British audiences whether he deserved his "McSame" nickname which implies a McCain administration would be little different from the Bush-led government. The senator skirted a direct answer but later criticized the postwar handling of Iraq. "The problem with Iraq, in my view, is because it was mishandled after the initial success," he said. "That caused great sacrifice, frustration and sorrow...
...clearly didn't want to detour into voicing the kind of open criticism of Brown's Iraq policy he has expressed in recent interviews. ( "Obviously I would like to have seen [British troops] stay longer and larger. At the time, I didn't think it was a good idea, but I understood the domestic British political situation," McCain told the Daily Telegraph in February about British plans for a drawdown in Basra.) Where he wanted to move on to was the much more comfortable area of shared aspirations. "We expressed our great appreciation for the long-standing and unique relationship...
...once fulsomely comparing the 41-year-old Briton to John F. Kennedy. McCain was a star speaker at the Conservatives' 2006 annual conference in the seaside resort town of Bournemouth. So despite the senator's carefully calibrated responses to questions about this friendship while still within earshot of the British Prime Minister, McCain departed Downing Street and hurried straight to a firm double handshake with Cameron in the shadow of Big Ben followed by a discussion covering a similar palette of subjects to the earlier meeting with Brown. After that, McCain fitted in a Republican fundraiser in London's posh...
...Like British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London the previous day, Sarkozy did not accompany his guest beyond the threshold of his official residence, presumably to avoid giving the impression he was supporting McCain's campaign in the event the compliments began flowing in great gushes. It was probably a wise move. By the time he was through, McCain had praised Sarkozy's leadership in environmental issues, pushing the harder international line against Iran's nuclear ambitions, and fighting terrorism. McCain called Sarkozy a "man of enormous energy" who has been central to bringing Franco-American relations into...