I’ve not visited “old” Albania since 1994, and yet before today it would have been difficult to persuade me that the impoverished ex-Communist Balkan country might ever be more surreal now than it was then.
Er … never mind.
Bush greeted as hero in Albania.
Looks like I picked a bad Monday to stop drinking. Here’s the previously published account of my first and only trip to the domain of Enver Hoxha:
"Old" Albania: Beer in the Land of the Eagle.
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9 comments:
What not drinking? Dubya is just an amazing leader of the free world. What a role model for what democracy can do for you. Please tell me it has not been 13 years since you visited Alania, where has time gone?
That was Albania, sorry....
Alania was marvelous ... haven't seen her for years. We met in Durres by the Chinese dock cranes. Ended up marrying George Hamilton, Rod Stewart and others.
But seriously, it seems crazy to have been 13 years. That was the first summer for San Fermin in Pamplona, too, and now it's been seven years since I attended a bull fight or watched the running from the safety of a well-stocked terrace.
Time flies when ... something.
Checking a website that enumerates all the fatalities suffered by the Coalition of the Willing, I see that to date 3,786 have paid the ultimate price for the folly of "He Who Shall be Blamed". That sorry number is comprised of 149 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, 7 Danes, 2 Dutch, 2 Estonians, 1 Figian, 1 Hungarian, 32 Italians, 1 Kazakh, 3 Latvians, 19 Poles, 2 Romanians, 5 Salvadorans, 4 Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, 2 Thai, 18 Ukranians, 3,510 U. S. soldiers, and zero Albanians.
No wonder he was greeted as a hero in Albania.
But, a word to the wise Albanian: Beware...maybe the Sick One's twisted mind, or Minder, has sent him in search of fresh cannon fodder.
May the angels of our better nature save us.
John, I suspect that a tour of duty in Iraq would convince most Albanians that their own vastly improved home front is far better.
Albania really is a fascinating place.
I'm certain Albania is, indeed fascinating. I'm equally certain Iraq was also a fascinating place until the Commander Guy set it on its glide path to Freedom.
I recognize it had a few personnel problems before we blew into town. But I'm about six years past cutting His Vacuousness any slack and will seize any opportunity to rail against him.
On the subject of Bush I exercise zero tolerance.
John, your candor is appreciated in these quarters.
You oughta run for office.
I just might do that.
Amazingly, I too chose Monday to stop drinking...I made it till about 9:15.
But may I say that as a New Albanian by CHOICE, I regard it as one of the best decisions of my life. And on Nov. 4, 2008 we can see the dark cloud over our republic lifted. As for Albania...why do you think we needed a NEW one?
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