[mburbank]

I'm sorry, I think AL you guys are getting spun and missing the point.

This story is being played like Bush stopped a fight. Commendable. And up to that point, true.

But you are all missing the fact that Bush stopped the fight by pulling his guy PAST Chillean security into the the place they didn't want them to go.

Bush is IN Chile. It's their country and their security. If their was a missunderstanding, stop the fight and either A.) Wait for the missunderstanding to be cleared up, or B.) go in without your secret service or C.) make it clear you won't go in without your secret service. ALL of those possabilities recognize Chiles sovereighnity.

Ignoring official Chilean security agents concerns and simply dragging your guy past them is very very bad and just what the rest of the world already thinks we're like.

Put the shoe on the other foot and think how it would play in the press.

President of Chile arrives for state dinner. The secret service stops his security agents. A fight ensues. The President of Chile steps in, pulls his man away from our secret service and escorts him into the state dinner.

Do you think for an instant we'd let that happen? Would our press say, Jeeze, that Chilean President is a real MAN! The hell!

We won't even let Cat Stevens in our country.

I'm sorry, this is just another instance of W assuming he's president of the world and not just the USA.

Now maybe you don't agree. Fine. But at least recognize this is what it will play like to much of the rest of the world. We once again displayed our contempt nd superiority.