View From America - March 20, Breaking News In Brief

Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(March 2005)

An ex-Brit gives his views - (without fear or favor) - of the American Scene

Breaking news in brief.

Dateline: Thursday 10th February 2005. Seoul, Korea.
North Korea declared today for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out indefinitely from six-part talks about its ambitions to become a nuclear power citing that North Korea needed a defence against the current hostility coming from the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apparently played down the dramatic announcement by saying that the United States had assumed since the mid-1990s that North Korea had the capability to make nuclear weapons and North Korea’s current announcement would only deepen its own isolation - whatever that means.
Comment: President Bush is now faced with a challenge as what to do about the two so-called rogue nations, North Korea and Iran, (who he previously described as part of an Axis of Evil), as both of these nations have currently adopted a posture of open defiance against the United States President’s efforts to curtail nuclear proliferation. The United States certainly does not have the military manpower in which to wage war against either of these nations and therefore it places the President in the unenviable position of having to plead with the United Nations to consider authorising some kind of sanctions against them as another disastrous war at this time would be a terrible mistake.Now we come back to comments ascribed to Vice President Cheney, (which I included in the February 2005 edition of "View from America"). Mr. Cheney was reported to have stated, "That he placed Iran at the top of a list of world trouble spots".
Surely Mr. Vice President, when considering the latest revelation by North Korea, you must now reconsider your previous somewhat ill chosen words!!!

Dateline: Thursday 10 th February 2005. London, England.
The potential heir to the British throne, Prince Charles who became divorced from his wife Diana in 1996 said today that he will marry the 57-year-old Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on the 8th of April 2005.
After the marriage Camilla will take the official title of, "Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall", and if and when Charles ever becomes King, Camilla will be called the "Princess Consort".
If Charles succeeds his 78-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth the Second, he will become the titular head of the Church of England, which may be a problem as I’m informed that the members of the Church of England have been bitterly divided over the possibility of Charles marrying a divorcee.
Comment: I have a feeling that under current marriage laws a civil ceremony at the Windsor Castle location will not be feasible and the question then would be if the Queen would still attend.
How come some members of the Church of England are bitterly opposed to Prince Charles marrying a divorcee but appear to have little or no concern about the possibility of Camilla Parker Bowles doing the same. Not being on the spot in what I believe to be a nation divided on the subject of the proposed marriage, I got to wondering what the British people currently think about the announcement - or do they really care anymore these days? I would be delighted to receive reader’s comments on the subject.
(Editors Note - Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles will be married at Windsor Guildhall as using the Castle to conduct a marriage would mean that the public would have been able to hold their marriages at Windsor Castle for the 3 years that a licence to hold weddings entails. Queen Elizabeth has agreed to be at the blessing of the couple's marriage in a ceremony that will follow the civic ceremony and will be held in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)
Dateline: Sunday 20th February 2005, Europe.
President Bush is currently in Europe trying to mend fences and woo European leaders to provide support for his Middle East policies. It has been suggested in a number of quarters that the United States uses its power irresponsibly with a degree of arrogance, which could be described as a possible reason for the chasm that currently exists between an idealistic United States and a cynical Europe.
I thought that President Bush was going to visit Great Britain but I’m given to understand that he wasn’t invited. Although Prime Minister Blair will meet with President Bush at the so-called European Summit, I have a distinct feeling that Mr. Blair will try to distance himself from his current position of being considered to be in the American Presidents pocket on foreign policy issues due to the upcoming general election in Britain.
Reliable sources indicate that at least two thirds of the British people believe that an American President should not dominate European and Middle East foreign policy.
Hostile public opinion in both Britain and most of Europe should indicate to the President that he can no longer dictate foreign policy in this part of the world and that he must make some conciliatory changes in his approach if he wishes to gain any degree of cooperation from the people of the European Union for his bull in a china shop approach in trying to install democracy in Middle Eastern Muslim nations.