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June 09, 2007
Albania to Bush: Please Occupy Us!
All of Albania is gussied up for President Bush's arrival this week. Highlights from the festivities:
Albanians' support for the war in Iraq is nearly unanimous and any perceived failings of U.S. foreign policy are studiously ignored. A two-day effort to find anyone of prominence who might offer some criticism of the United States turned up just one name and that person was out of the country. Every schoolchild in Albania can tell you that President Woodrow Wilson saved Albania from being split up among its neighbors after World War I, and nearly every adult repeats the story when asked why Albanians are so infatuated with the United States - to the point of "fetishism," in the words of one local journalist.
Secretary of State James Baker was mobbed like a rock star when he visited the country in 1991. There was even a move to hold a referendum declaring the country as America's 51st state around that time. Thousands of young Albanians, meanwhile, have been named Bill or Hillary thanks to the Clinton administration's role in rescuing ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo war. After Sunday's visit, some people expect to see a rash of babies named George.
...
But all eyes are on Bush. Albanians are pouring into the capital from across the region. Hotel rooms are as scarce as anti-American feelings.
"The excitement among Albanians over this visit is immeasurable, beyond words," Albania's youthful new foreign minister, Lulzim Basha, said in an interview in his office, decorated with an elegant portrait of Faik Konica, the first Albanian ambassador to the United States.
...
So eager is the country to accommodate Bush that Parliament unanimously approved a bill last month that allows "American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force, in order to provide security for the president." One newspaper, reporting on the effusive mood, ran a headline that read, "Please Occupy Us!"
Posted by Barron YoungSmith at June 9, 2007 12:28 AM
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