Bush: Europe, U.S. Should Unite on Iraq's Future

By Don Gonyea

Published February 20, 2005 at 11:00 PM CST

President Bush says the world's established democracies must pledge their support to the world's newest democracy in Iraq, calling for economic and security help in the rebuilding country. The president is in Brussels, beginning a five-day trip to Europe meant to improve strained relations between the United States and its allies.

Dismissing past disagreements as temporary disputes in a long relationship between countries, Bush said it is time "to begin a new era of trans-Atlantic unity" as he begins a schedule of meetings with leaders who opposed his policies in Iraq, such as France's President Jacques Chirac and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

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Don Gonyea

You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.

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