{"id":2019,"date":"2003-12-10T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2003-12-11T07:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/12\/10\/youve-got-to-be-kidding-me\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T14:38:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T22:38:57","slug":"youve-got-to-be-kidding-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/12\/10\/youve-got-to-be-kidding-me\/","title":{"rendered":"You&#039;ve got to be kidding me"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:12688,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2003\\\/12\\\/11\\\/international\\\/middleeast\\\/11PREX.html?ex=1386478800&amp;en=554765b30b5a02b5&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>From the New York Times: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2003\/12\/11\/international\/middleeast\/11PREX.html?ex=1386478800&amp;en=554765b30b5a02b5&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND\" title=\"Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals\">Bush Seeks Help of Allies Barred From Iraq Deals<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq&#8217;s debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries and others from \\$18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.<\/p>\n<p>  White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon&#8217;s directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>  Many countries excluded from the list, including close allies like Canada, reacted angrily on Wednesday to the Pentagon action. They were incensed, in part, by the Pentagon&#8217;s explanation in a memorandum that the restrictions were required &#8220;for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How does any of this help <em>anyone<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq&#8217;s debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-2019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}