[DEBATE] : Land of the Free home of the Brave.. Bush Blair Harper and Uribe

[Miles Teg]

Bush awards medal to three "true friends" of the US
AFP
Published: Tuesday January 13, 2009


   

   
   

President George W. Bush praised three "true friends of the United 
States" as he awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to Tony Blair, 
John Howard and Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe.

The three men were given the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony 
at the White House in the final days of Bush's presidency.

"This afternoon I'm pleased to award the Medal of Freedom to three 
extraordinary leaders," Bush said of his Colombian counterpart, former 
British prime minister Blair and former Australian leader Howard.

Each of the men was "a true friend of the United States who met historic 
challenges with great tenacity, and who provides a lasting example of 
statesmanship at home and abroad," he said.

Blair and Howard were Bush's staunchest allies in the 2003 US-led 
invasion of Iraq, and the outgoing president paid lengthy tribute to 
each of them and their "firm adherence to the principles of freedom and 
democratic values."

"They're the sort of guys who look you in the eye and tell you the truth 
and keep their word," he said.

Blair, who is now the special envoy to the Middle East, "was there in a 
moment of trial to affirm the special relationship between the United 
States and the United Kingdom," Bush said, referring to the September 
11, 2001 attacks.

"Under Tony Blair's leadership, the might and the moral authority of 
Great Britain have been applied to the war on terror from the first day.

"The former prime minister of the United Kingdom will stand tall in 
history."

Blair said later on CNN about the award that "really for me it's about 
the people who work with me and their sacrifice, and that commitment."

Bush was just as lavish in his praise of Howard, who he said "never 
wavered in his support for liberty, and free institutions, and the rule 
of law as the true and hopeful alternatives to ideologies of violence 
and repression."

"He's a man of honesty and moral clarity. He can make a decision, he can 
defend it, and he stands his ground. That's why I called him a Man of 
Steel," Bush added.

But the US president made no mention of the controversy surrounding 
Howard's visit and his stay in Blair House, which denied incoming 
president-elect Barack Obama and his family the chance of staying in 
official residence for a couple of weeks.

As for Uribe, Bush said the Colombian leader had bravely confronted the 
problem of drug-trafficking in his country. Early in this decade, the 
Republic of Colombia was near the point of being, at best, a failed 
state -- or, at worst, a narco-state," Bush said.

"In those conditions, it took more than ambition and ideals to run for 
political office -- it required immense personal courage and strength of 
character."

Bush told the three leaders they would always be welcome in the United 
States and invited them to visit him on his Texas ranch after he moves 
out of the White House on January 20.

"The opportunity to know them and work with them has been among the 
great satisfactions of my time as president. I respect them and I admire 
them," he added.