That's something I dislike about US...NY Times opinion piece

[InFecTed]

Here's the exact text as published in NYT:

<FONT face=Verdana><FONT face=Arial>February 26, 2003
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

The diplomatic motorcade pulled up to the White House
yesterday with great fanfare. The two Marine guards at the
door of the colonnaded West Wing saluted smartly. TV
cameras pressed close to get pictures of the vital American
ally alighting from the black sedan for his one-on-one with
President Bush.

It was a summit of the two great strategic partners,
America and Bulgaria.

Bulgaria?

As the world's only remaining superpower was conferring
honor upon one of its only remaining friends, America
smashed through the global looking glass.

To get Saddam, the Bush administration has dizzily turned
the world upside down and inside out.

Our new best friends are the very people we used to protect
our old best friends from. During the cold war, we
safeguarded Old Europe from the Evil Empire. Now we have
embraced the former Soviet Bloc satellites to protect us from
the Security Council machinations of our former paramours
France and Germany. NATO was created to protect Western
Europe from the Communist hordes - namely the Bulgarians, who
tried to outdo the bizarro Albanians as the most Stalinist
regime in Eastern Europe and were renowned for the "thick
necks" who did wet work for the K.G.B.

The U.S. is now in the process of wooing the "minnows" - as
some in the Pentagon disparagingly call the small countries
that could deliver the votes for a Security Council
resolution on going to war with Iraq.

It's the battle of the pipsqueak powers: we dragoon
Bulgaria to offset France dragooning Cameroon.

The Bulgarians used to be the lowest of the low here. In
1998, just before the visit of the Bulgarian president,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met with
President Clinton. The visit was so icy that a Clinton aide
joked to reporters about Mr. Netanyahu: "We're treating him
like the president of Bulgaria. Actually, I think Clinton
will go jogging with the president of Bulgaria, so that's not fair."

Now Secretary Don Evans flies off to Bulgaria to discuss
trade, and Rummy hints we may move U.S. troops from Germany
to Bulgaria.

In diplomatic circles, our new allies from Eastern Europe
are dryly referred to as "Bush's Warsaw Pact." As one
Soviet expert put it, "Bulgaria used to be Russia's lapdog.
Now it's America's lapdog."

The Bulgarians were such sycophants to Russia that in the
60's they proposed becoming the 16th republic of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Bush will not be the only one having trouble with the
Bulgarian prime minister's name. We all will. In some press
reports it's spelled Simeon Saxcoburggotski, and in others
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The tall, balding, bearded prime
minister was formerly King Simeon II, a deposed child czar.
He is a distant relative of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's
consort, but not Count Dracula. That's our other new best
friend, Romania.

Is this a good trade, the French for the Bulgarians?


Sketchy facts about Bulgaria rattle around: It has a town
called Plovdiv; it wants to become big in the skiing
industry; its secret service stabbed an exiled dissident
writer in London with a poison-tipped umbrella - a
ricin-tipped umbrella, in fact; its weight-lifting team was
expelled from the Olympics in a drug scandal in 2000; it sent
agents to kill the pope.

During the cold war Bulgaria was valued by Moscow for the
canned tomatoes it sent in winter, and by France for sending
attar of roses, distilled rose oil that was the binding agent
for French perfume.

Three famous Bulgarians: Carl Djerassi, who invented birth
control pills; Christo, the original wrap artist; Boris
Christof, the opera singer. In "Casablanca" there was the
Bulgarian girl who offered herself to Claude Rains to get
plane tickets.

Avis Bohlen, a former second-in-command at the American
Embassy in France and an ambassador to Sofia in the late
1990's, calls Bulgaria "a very gutsy little country" that has
worked hard to improve.

Ms. Bohlen is dubious about the Bush administration's
volatile snits at old allies. "You can't build a foreign
policy on pique," she says.

She says Bulgaria will be a good ally: "They're really
brilliant at math and science, and they have famous wine."

So, we don't need French wine after all.

Rude, damn rude if you ask me. The complete ignorance of historical facts is amazing:disgust:</FONT>
</FONT>

 

[InFecTed]

That really asked for some reaction. If you care about facts check this letter to the "journalist" in question...

<FONT face=Verdana>Dear MAUREEN DOWD,
You are either a mediocre comedian or very poor historian right? Oh, I forgot the possibility that you might be both. The noble profession of a journalist is out of the question, having in mind the profane statements you have made.
Let me follow your order (or your lack of such). NATO wasn?t really created to protect the ?West? from Bulgaria. I am sorry if I am crushing some of your child dreams, but someone, someday had to make this. Thank you for overestimating us though.
Then KGB ? you say that the Bulgarians ?were renowned for the "thick necks" who did wet work for the K.G.B.?. I am sorry for having to crush another dream of yours. Well, the KGB isn?t really renowned for outsourcing it?s core activities to anyone, unlike lets say, some American companies that have outsourced the ?Fraud? department to specialized, expert companies - Arthur Andersen comes to my mind as the most recent case.
Then we reach one of my favorite parts ? ?The Bulgarians were such sycophants to Russia that in the 60's they proposed becoming the 16th republic of the Soviet Union? ? you should really sue your history professor. Moreover, such a claim is suitable for politics dilettantes in the summer vacation between 3rd and 4th grade. As a noble man (this might be a new word for you ? check it out, it?s cool), I am willing to help you in that quest. If Bulgaria really did propose such a ludicrous thing, your name most probably would have been Maria Dudova, long for Comrade Dudova, and you wouldn?t have won a ?Pulitzer?, but a ?Lenin?s Science Fiction Award? was surely yours.
We go on?? Mr. Bush will not be the only one having trouble with the Bulgarian prime minister's name. We all will?. Wrong, Comrade Dudova, once again you are wrong. YOU will have difficulty with that, much in the same way in which you are having difficulty grasping some obvious facts about the world and the universe. By the way, his name is not Bulgarian. The name developed (yes, names DO develop) in times when the North American continent was a happy continent (hint: BEFORE the apartheid against the Indians)
?Is this a good trade, the French for the Bulgarians?? ? Comrade Dudova, we are not talking about trade here. Read ?The Economist? from time to time (aaaah, the good ol' humor of the British). It?s called ?politics? and it definitely has its connections with ?trade?, but they are not interchangeable terms.
By now your modest by all standards genius is most probably clogged. I am sorry about that. Actually, I am not. I will continue to befuddle you even more.
??its secret service stabbed an exiled dissident writer in London with a poison-tipped umbrella? ? it was the KGB, but since you couldn?t care less for such small details ? who killed who, why, how, etc, I wouldn?t give you the details. The important thing for you is that at some point, someone, killed someone. Hmm, specific. I like that.
??it sent agents to kill the pope.? ? You work for a newspaper, make a little effort and read it from time to time. Actually, this was quite some time ago, but do not get discouraged ? try finding it in a library.
?During the cold war Bulgaria was valued by Moscow for the canned tomatoes it sent in winter? ? yes, I am happy to say that we had a diversified economy. Do you want to know what else we were valued for? For making some of the most advanced computers, for the high-quality weapons - Bulgaria was the 5th largest exporter of weapons in the world, for the intellectual capital and for much more, but since you probably forgot the beginning of the sentence I will stop.
?Three famous Bulgarians: Carl Djerassi? ? Comrade Dudova ? your attention to detail once again ? the poor guy is probably checking his passport after reading your ?opinion piece?, because he never had a Bulgarian one. Did you mean Austrian? Well, I know, I know, what?s the difference?
?In "Casablanca" there was the Bulgarian girl who offered herself to Claude Rains to get plane tickets.? ? in NYC there are thousands of girls that offer themselves for $5. The Bulgarian girl at least had a class.
?So, we don't need French wine after all? ? of course you don?t ? you will have a hard time telling the difference between wine and grape juice. In fact it?s a crime giving you French wine. Why waste it? What you actually need, Comrade Dudova, is a good spanking, for not doing your homework.

Sincerely Yours</FONT>

 

[tcsenter]

Well I give you an "A" for effort, but you've really not provided a well reasoned and factual counter or rebuttal to Dowd's Op-Ed, only some vague references and attacks on her education and integrity. And the Arthur Andersen comment is off; KGB->Government Agency, Enron->Corporation. Its more of a pissing match you've got going.

And if you think the North American continent was 'happy-go-lucky' before pale face come and killed all the Indians, Dowd isn't the only one who should due their history professor. Numerous warring Indian tribes perfected their warfare and practices of indiscriminantly killing men, women, the elderly, and children, raiding and ambushing, on each other before pale face ever set foot in North America.

 

[InFecTed]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Well I give you an "A" for effort, but you've really not provided a well reasoned and factual counter or rebuttal to Dowd's Op-Ed, only some vague references and attacks on her education and integrity. And the Arthur Andersen comment is off; KGB->Government Agency, Enron->Corporation. Its more of a pissing match you've got going. And if you think the North American continent was 'happy-go-lucky' before pale face come and killed all the Indians, Dowd isn't the only one who should due their history professor. Numerous warring Indian tribes perfected their warfare and practices of indiscriminantly killing men, women, the elderly, and children, raiding and ambushing, on each other before pale face ever set foot in North America.

So you found a way to stop indians killing each other...you killed them all

But that's not the point. This kind of behavior was the case almost everywere in the world at that time and before (colonisation). Money was king, human life had no value.

 

[jjones]

So I guess when Clinton gets onto an airplane and goes to visit Bulgaria everything in the world is normal but when the Bulgarians come to see Bush in the White House the world's a topsy-turvy kind of place.

 

[jjones]

Clinton speech, November 22, 1999, Kempinski Hotel, Sofia, Bulgaria.

President Stoyanov, Mrs. Stoyanov; Prime Minister and Mrs. Kostov; distinguished government leaders; citizens of Bulgaria; our American friends. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you for your warm welcome. This is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. (Applause.) You gave my wife a memorable day here not so long ago, and our daughter and I had a wonderful time today in so many ways, a few of which I would like to mention.

But first let me begin with the time President Stoyanov came to the White House. Hillary and I welcomed him there a couple of years ago, and I was very interested in this young President of Bulgaria, so I read up on him.

He was only a little younger than me -- he looks much younger, but he's only a little. (Laughter.) He studied the law. His wife studied law. He's a father who likes to jog. He likes to read. He grew up listening to rock 'n' roll -- just like me. (Laughter.) The only difference I could find from our biographies is that he liked John Lennon and I liked Elvis. (Laughter.)

Earlier today on Nevsky Square I had the opportunity to speak to a vast and immensely impressive throng of Bulgarians about the new partnership we are forging for democracy, peace and prosperity.

Mr. President, as you pointed out in your remarks, the relationships between our two countries and our mutual admiration goes back quite a long while. Perhaps the best symbol of this is the American College here, which I learned, as I prepared to come, was actually first opened in the year Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States, 1860.

During the dark days after World War II, the college was closed. The war first brought its closure and then afterward, in the communist era its grounds were turned over to the secret police. But Americans and Bulgarians never lost faith that it would open again one day, because we never lost faith that Bulgaria would be free again one day.

A few years after the school reopened, our ambassador at the time, Ambassador Bohlen, took a trip to the famous Rila Monastery. And right before she left, the abbot came up to her and said, I have a secret to show you. They walked to a basement and there in a hidden place was the entire library of the American College, preserved for 50 years by the same monastery that helped to preserve Bulgarian language and culture for 500 years.

Just as those books were hidden deep in the heart of Bulgaria for half a century, there was an energy and creativity hidden deep in the heart of Bulgarians through all those same years. More than 100 years before the Renaissance began, Bulgarian thinkers and artists were already shaping the world.

Now, the energies and creativities of the Bulgarian people have been liberated again, and from now on, you will always be masters of your destiny -- neither vassals, nor victims to anyone. Now you're on a road that is often hard, but with a very happy destination. I believe it will lead you to prosperity, to peace, to security -- to being part of a Europe that is whole and free.

Tonight, I come here again to reaffirm the friendship and the partnership of the United States; our gratitude to you for being a symbol of freedom and determination. I come to offer a toast of respect and thanks.

I toast Bulgaria, its President and its leaders for casting your lot with freedom in spite of the pain of transition; for standing strongly with humanity in reversing ethnic cleansing, in spite of the sacrifices imposed; and having the courage to follow your dreams, and the vision to achieve them.

May Americans and Bulgarians always be friends and partners. Thank you.

 

[InFecTed]

It was cool when Clinton came here, there was a rock concert in downtown Sofia and both presidents actually enjoyed it🙂

 

[wnied]

Politics is well known for creating strange bedfellows. Now that the light of democracy has finally begun to shine in countries where it never had, people once looked upon as enemies are now friends. Though I agree with most that Bush only entertains them to circumvent our current allies strategy against our countries first strike initiative. I would be happy to see American Military bases leave places like Germany for countries like Poland, Bulgaria and the like. People who would appreciate our friendship and look favorably on what our troops presence would bring to their local economies. Too long I think countries like Germany and France have fattened themselves on our economical aide and lived under our protection, that they've become complacent and irritated with our policies. Fine, move our militaries presence out of those countries. Move onto those who would desire to entice our presence elsewhere. Our cold war worries have been found to be unfounded. Now our greatest interest now should be our safety to continue living peaceably. Help Countries like Russia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Poland to bring themselves out of the technological and economical dark ages they've been experiencing for so long because of a political system that just simply didnt work. These are our friends of the present and future. They need our help, but also I believe the US should remember and put into play the past experiences and difficulties we had rebuilding most of western europe. This could be what we need to better define our foreign policies for custom fitting countries we decide to help, instead of trying to use the "one size fits all" archetype of the past.

Ok enough political blabbering.
~wnied~

 

[Martin]

A little too derogatory for my likes. And full of innacuracies.

The Bulgarians were such sycophants to Russia that in the 60's they proposed becoming the 16th republic of the Soviet Union.

The Bulgarian gov. and not Bulgarians themselves wanted this. Do communist governments express the will of the people?

Mr. Bush will not be the only one having trouble with the Bulgarian prime minister's name. We all will. In some press reports it's spelled Simeon Saxcoburggotski, and in others Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

His name is Saxe Coburg Gotha, but Bulgarians call him Saxcoburggotski. Is that so hard to understand?

it sent agents to kill the pope.

The people were not convicted. But according to her, you are guilty simply because there was a trial against you

 

[tcsenter]

So you found a way to stop indians killing each other...you killed them all But that's not the point.

Not them all, only enough to make them irrelevant and keep them from posing a threat to settlers, but you're right, that's not the point. The point was that your response is little more than a pissing match. In effect, Dowd said 'My dad can beat up your dad' and your response is tantamount to 'Nuh-uh! My dad can beat up your dad!'

But its your reply, it can be as stupid and pointless as you want.

 

[Dudd]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

So you found a way to stop indians killing each other...you killed them all But that's not the point.

Not them all, only enough to make them irrelevant and keep them from posing a threat to settlers, but you're right, that's not the point. The point was that your response is little more than a pissing match. In effect, Dowd said 'My dad can beat up your dad' and your response is tantamount to 'Nuh-uh! My dad can beat up your dad!'

But its your reply, it can be as stupid and pointless as you want.

Let's cut him a break, if he is Bulgarian, I highly doubt that English is his first language, so something may have been lost in the translation.