Angry Chirac puts Bush in his place
Jacques Chirac bluntly told George Bush to mind his own business yesterday when the US president urged European leaders to give Turkey a firm date for starting EU membership talks later this year.
Ignoring the determined effort to celebrate improved transatlantic relations after the Iraq crisis, the French president publicly rebuked Mr Bush at Nato's Istanbul summit for calling for special treatment for the Turks.
Mr Bush, he complained, "not only went too far but went on to territory which is not his own".
He added: "It's as if I was advising the US on how they should manage their relations with Mexico."
As he was speaking, Tony Blair and Mr Bush were asked about their current relationship with France and Germany, the key Nato critics of their Iraq war policy.
Mr Blair said: "There's no point ... in saying all the previous disagreements have disappeared; they have not."
I imagine it went something like this...
Prez Bush: I call on all of Europe to use your stratedgery and expand European Union freedomship to Turkey.
Reporter: Pres. Bush, Who is currently in the European Union?
Bush: You'll..Won't...Initi... Europe!
Reporter: But President Bush...
Bush: Will you let me finish?(snicker)It's a different world, 9/11, terror, so we must give Turkey a tax cut... uh...I mean, freedomship.