Word: rumsfeld
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...know," she said, and started working the phones back to Washington, talking with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense chief Donald Rumsfeld and relaying information to the President. Bush remained publicly silent all through Sunday as U.S. diplomats looked for a discreet way out of the impasse. Bush knew that whatever signals he sent went not only to the Chinese but also to the rest of the world, which was waiting to see how an inexperienced new president would handle his first foreign policy test, how his instinct for caution would play against his equally instinctive impatience...
...monday morning, some 36 hours had passed without progress. Bush met with Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney and agreed that it was time for him to make a statement and turn up the pressure on Jiang. But there were domestic political pressures at play as well. The White House was keen to show that Bush was in charge, setting the tone, weighing the options. Cheney would spend the week conspicuously busy on Capitol Hill, worrying about the budget. As for Rumsfeld and Powell, now playing tug-of-war with their second generation of Bush presidents...
...Monday morning, some 36 hours had passed without progress. Bush met with Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney and agreed that it was time for him to make a statement and turn up the pressure on Jiang. But there were domestic political pressures at play as well. The White House was keen to show that Bush was in charge, setting the tone, weighing the options. Cheney would spend the week conspicuously busy on Capitol Hill, worrying about the budget. As for Rumsfeld and Powell, now playing tug-of-war with their second generation of Bush Presidents...
...Once again he mentioned getting the plane back, but by now this was a bargaining chip. The Chinese were not likely to relinquish such a prize, yet by demanding it Bush might allow them to save some face by releasing the crew but keeping the plane. By the time Rumsfeld issued his first statement the next day, there was no mention of the plane. "The plane doesn't matter anymore," said a Bush adviser. "It's destroyed anyway...
...President, precisely because relations between Washington and Beijing have been deteriorating over the U.S. plan to build a national missile defense system and, more immediately, its proposed sale of destroyers equipped with the sophisticated Aegis anti-missile system to Taiwan. Comments by Bush administration hawks - most notably Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's recommendation that containing China become the strategic focus of U.S. military doctrine - have done little to sweeten the atmosphere in which U.S. diplomats must now persuade their Chinese counterparts to hand back the crew and the plane. Taking a look around the plane will certainly be tempting...