bush slight to shrub ? ? ? ?

(Thanks to "drf" for pointing this out.)

From bush's speech to the American Enterprise Institute ("Boo, Hiss, Yuck!!") on February 16, 2007:

"For NATO to succeed, member nations must provide commanders on the ground with the troops and the equipment they need to do their jobs. Many allies have made commitments of additional forces and support -- and I appreciate those commitments, but * nearly as much as the people in Afghanistan appreciate them. Norway, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have all agreed to send special operation forces to Afghanistan. Britain, Poland, Turkey and Bulgaria have agreed to additional troops. Italy has agreed to send aircraft. Romania will contribute to the EU police mission. Denmark, Greece, Norway and Slovakia will provide funding for Afghan security forces. Iceland will provide airlift. The people of Afghanistan need to know that they've got a lot of friends in this world who want them to succeed."

*(The second sentence error omitting the "not" after "but" is verbatim from the White House web page at this address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070215-1.html
Perhaps the decider's grammar is rubbing off on the speech writers?? - But I digress . . . . )

We have not seen in any Canadian media reports a mention of the fact that mr. bush is apparently not impressed enough with Canada's actions and additional troop support in the Afghanistan mission to mention them in the same paragraph as other US allies. The only reference to Canada in the entire speech devoted to actions and plans for Afghanistan is in the following paragraph:

"And in the past year, nations including Denmark, Italy, France, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Turkey, Canada, and Britain have broken up terrorist cells. The enemy is active, and so are those of us who love freedom. It's in the interests of the United States to encourage other nations not to relent and not to give in, but to keep the pressure on those who try to have their way by murdering the innocent. And that's exactly what we'll continue to do."

Do any Canadian political leaders - mr. harper, particularly - feel a bit taken for granted by the bushies?

Just wondering . . . .