The EU responds appropriately
Quote of note:
In their private talks and a joint U.S.-EU statement, European leaders made clear their disquiet over both the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the U.S. military abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail.
The statement pointedly stressed "the need for full respect of the Geneva Conventions."
Bush Declares End to Iraq Rift at EU Summit
Sat Jun 26, 2004 12:03 PM ET
By Steve Holland
NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS, Ireland (Reuters) - President Bush declared an end on Saturday to Western rifts over Iraq but won little in his search for European military help and took heat over prisoner abuse.
"The bitter differences of the war are over," Bush told a news conference, which was delayed by anti-American protests staged around the lightning U.S.-EU summit in Ireland.
Fenced off from his detractors by 2,000 soldiers and 4,000 police -- a third of the Irish security forces -- Bush holed up in a picturesque western Irish castle with European Union leaders before flying to Turkey ahead of a NATO summit.
An EU-NATO commitment to train Iraqi security forces was the most concrete sign of any new transatlantic unity.
But it fell way short of Washington's original goal of getting NATO troops into Iraq, and diplomats said it may be just the lowest common denominator the two sides can live with.
