Maybe we’d be safer with a Canadian flag on the side of the bus

May 5, 2006

The World Cup [tag]soccer[/tag] tournament will kick off in June in [tag]Germany[/tag], with 32 nations competing in one of the world’s biggest sporting events. Thirty one of the teams will prominently feature their nation’s flag on their team bus. Guess which one won’t (via TP).

The official team [tag]bus[/tag] to be used by the [tag]United States[/tag] during the [tag]World Cup[/tag] will not bear a [tag]flag[/tag] for [tag]security[/tag] reasons.

The 32 official buses were presented Thursday in Frankfurt and the other 31 buses have large national flags of the their teams painted on rear sides.

German and U.S. security officials came to the conclusion to leave the flag off the U.S. team bus, an official of the German organizing committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the topic.

Keep in mind, Germany is an ally.

I wonder how many years it will be before our image abroad recovers from the [tag]Bush[/tag] era.

Of course, now all you have to do is look for the bus without a flag.

  • Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hold on a second here. There are valid security concerns in Germany for our people, and not because of the Germans. Remember, the 9/11 hijackers lived in Hamburg, Germany before coming over to the states. The Germans are excellent hosts of many of our troops and families, and they take good care of us (in the immediate post-9/11 period, German Police escorted every single American school bus on its rounds).

    Don’t slight the Germans. Their biggest nightmare would be to have a major incident involving Americans targetted within their country.

  • There are valid security concerns in Germany for our people, and not because of the Germans.

    Just to clarify, my point isn’t to slight the Germans at all. I appreciate exactly why Germany is taking these precautions — it’s because they’re necessary. But the point I want to emphasize is that every other country, from around the world, is proud to show their flag on their team bus, but we can’t because the U.S. isn’t terribly popular right now.

    It’s about our standing in the world, not about Germany security precautions.

  • Castor, I think that you are missing the point.
    We are now much more of a target because of the policies of the Bush administration.
    Would we have been so concerned immediately after 9/11?
    No, the world stood with us at that time.
    Since then, Dubya and his cabal of war profiteers have dragged America down to the lowest depths I have known in my lifetime.
    Because of these (expletive deleted) the United States of America are no longer “the good guys.”
    We torture prisoners, have illegally invaded a country not threatening us, and we could all go on and on….

    Get th point, now? Or am I missing something?

  • I’ll bet the wingnuts see this kind of thing as a validation of their policies.

    The way they look at it, if we’re pissing off the bad guys, we must be doing the right things… which of course is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

    They’re idiots, but that almost goes without saying.

  • This links into the thread posted today on Bush not talking to Iran, N. Korea, Syria, etc. Not only does this administration not talk to it’s enemies, it insults or bullies its allies.

    From the comment section of Sadly, No! I came across this link:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060428.wxterror29/BNStory/International/homeL

    The headline: US blasts Canada on terrorism
    Note that this is after Canada elected a right-wing conservative government for the first time in over a decade. A government which is a minority (and therefore must tread lightly). A government which would like very much to suck up to Bush, but now Bush has made it much more difficult for them to do so. Talk about self-destructive tendencies… Hello Fortress America!

  • Maybe we could disguise our team with a Mexican flag on our bus. It would be priceless to see Michelle Malkin’s reaction.

  • Carpetbagger wrote — “I wonder how many years it will be before our image abroad recovers from the Bush era.”

    This might come across as deeply naive, but speaking as a Canadian who profoundly opposes the Bush admin, I think a turn-around in World opinion could be rapid — with the right leader. An awful lot of people outside your country understand that US leadership is essential. A leader that embraces this role in the spirit of cooperation would, I think, be embraced.

  • As long as Bushco’s Republican Guard still remain in control of the Seenot and the House of Unrepentant there will be no hope of restoring America to its former glory.

    We have become a third-world banana republic – without the bananas. I sincerely believe that IF we can toss out the Republican Guard and its three main foundations of government now shown irrefutably to have FAILED, i.e., “tax cuts are good for the economy”; “trickle down economics”; “deficits don’t matter”, that it will still take two generations or more for America to recover from the most pernicious political agenda ever foisted off on the public by the most pernicious political party in our history.

    THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF DAMAGE BUSH HAS DONE TO THE COUNTRY WON’T BECOME APPARENT UNTIL LONG AFTER BUSH LEAVES OFFICE, which means plenty of grim times ahead for us all. Let’s pray that the damage Bush has done to the “conservative” party will be everlasting, and so shameful that it will mean the death of the GOP.

  • “A leader that embraces this role in the spirit of cooperation would, I think, be embraced.”

    I gotta disagree with my fellow Canuck. I have my doubts. Most folks will not be so forth coming. I think they’d utter the immortal lines, “I get down on my knees and pray…WE WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!!!”

    America’s best hope to recovery is to take these gang of fools and put them on trial (in Iraq) and have them share the same cellblock as Saddamm. Plus their support organizations like the lackeys at the various MSM, the think tanks, the generals, the business cronies, the fundies like Robertson and their rich patrons should be taken to task. It is going to involve cooperation between those cons and libs who haven’t fallen in love with perks and power of the MICC.

    It means once and for all dealing with the Military Industrial Congressional Complex (as the late and missed David Hackworth called it.) And it has to be done by Americans. No UN. No World Court. No outsiders (except to cheer.) It is not going to be easy or nice or gosh darn it, polite. If America wants to regain some of what has been lost, you guys can’t do a Japan and bury your heads in the sand (no crimes here…all nice…those damned Chinese were so ungrateful… Nanking was a frat boy prank…etc.)

  • “We have become a third-world banana republic – without the bananas.” – Bill Arnett

    That’s okay, we have sugar beets and sugar cane. That puts us right up there with Haiti and the Domincan Republic.

  • People around the world are smart. I’d wager they are smarter and have longer memories than Americans do. They know enough about the political divisions within this country, they remember the last President we had. It all depends on who we elect in 2008, if we still have that constitutional right. If Americans are smart enough to elect someone unlike Bush, someone who cares about the rest of the world, someone who works with them instead of against them, someone who will rush to their defense instead of attacking countries unprovoked, then our ratings with the rest of the world will skyrocket dramatically as soon as the election.

  • Finally a topic that’s closer to where I live 🙂

    I get the point of not putting a flag on the bus, but I think there’s a slight overreaction. Here in Holland and in our neighbour country Germany there’s been a lot of irritation about especially the foreign policy of the Bush administration. Germany declined to give any support because of a huge lack of public support, the Dutch government gave only political support because of the lack of public support for the Iraq war. Two out of three Dutch didn’t want our government to support the Iraq war. But since our current government lacks any backbone, they decided to have it both ways: no military support to keep the electorate satisfied, and political support to keep the US satisfied.

    But to get to my point: the Iraq war mainly made the foreign policy of the US unpopular over here. But ask ten Dutchmen about how they feel avout the US as a country, and they’ll say they like it. Because of its freedom, because of its influence in culture etc. etc. And besides, both Holland and Germany are football (soccer) freaks. Our people just want to see some good games, and we’re glad to have the Americans along. No one is gonna account the faulty foreign policy of their government to the American soccerteam. No one.

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