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Vp ambush { July 7 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33781-2002Jul6.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33781-2002Jul6.html
Bush Conveys Sorrow After Afghan Slaying
Assassination Colors Maine Holiday
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 7, 2002; Page A04
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine, July 6 -- President Bush awoke today with little on his agenda other than golf with his father and a 56th birthday celebration for himself. The president's playful mood was evident, as it was on a similar occasion a year ago, by his choice in headgear: in this case, a hat saying "El Jefe."
"That's French," Bush joked to reporters before teeing off shortly after 6 a.m. Actually, it was Spanish for "the boss," a departure from a year ago, when the president subtly acknowledged that he was the latest Bush to hold the job by wearing a hat that said "43" -- his place in the line of U.S. presidents. That day, his father wore a hat that said "41."
A couple of hours later, when the Bushes finished their game, the playfulness was gone, as was the "El Jefe" hat. In front of a stand of pines not far from the 18th hole at Cape Arundel Golf Club, the president read a somber statement about the assassination of Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir in Kabul, the latest incident to heighten fears about the stability of one of the most important U.S. allies in the war on terrorism.
Bush called Qadir a "good man" and said, "The administration and our country mourns the loss of a man who desired freedom and stability for the country he loved."
It was the second time in two days that news from Afghanistan interrupted what administration officials had hoped would be a quiet weekend.
Friday, before Bush and his family left the White House aboard his Marine One helicopter, he made a five-minute condolence call to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about a U.S. airstrike on Monday. The call stopped short of an apology but amounted to a tacit admission that something had gone wrong in an attack that Afghan officials said killed dozens of civilians, many gathered for a wedding party. Today, U.S. military officials said civilians died in the incident.
Bush recounted his conversation with Karzai for reporters today, saying, "Any time innocent life is lost, we're sad. Our country values life, all life. And we'll find out what the facts are and then address it."
The somber mood lifted before Bush left the golf course. He blamed today's unusually slow round of 2 hours and 10 minutes -- slow, that is, by the Bush family's standard of "speed golf" -- on his having "three-putted too many greens." And he complained about the likelihood that his Secret Service detail would forbid a jog through this seaside village, consigning him to "a mechanical run" on a treadmill.
Bush also expressed a longing to return to his ranch in Crawford, Tex., in August, though the family sought to make the president, who has vacationed here since he was a child, feel at home at the oceanfront compound by flying the Texas flag beside the American one.
In his weekly radio address this morning, Bush spoke of the diversity of the United States and the nation's fight against terrorism.
"America is the most diverse nation on Earth," Bush said. "Yet, in a moment we discovered again that we are a single people, we share the same allegiance, we live under the same flag -- and when you strike one American, you strike us all."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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