Shared beliefs
Despite such gaffes, Bush has embraced the Italian leader. The two have much in common. Both have conservative political ideologies. Both have owned sports teams. Both are plain-talkers.
"We share a clarity in the way you say things: Yes is yes. No is no," Berlusconi told Time magazine in an interview published on the eve of his visit to the ranch. "We only met two years ago, but I feel I know him like I know my grammar school friends."
Berlusconi might reap more political clout from the visit than Bush, who continues to be plagued with questions about the war. US casualties in Iraq are climbing daily, and the Bush administration has been unable to shake off a controversy over Bush's suspect claim in his State of the Union address that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium in Africa. The presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which have not been found, was Bush's major justification for the war.
"The only thing that Bush can get out of Berlusconi right now is perhaps a pledge to send some troops out to Iraq," Niblett said. "But public support for Berlusconi's position on Iraq is -- like in the UK -- very low. So I would imagine that the most they [the US] would be looking for would be military police-type of support."
In the run-up to the war, Berlusconi helped lobby European leaders for support.
Now America is looking to Europe again for support to end what Army General John Abizaid, the new overall commander of the Iraq operation, is calling "guerilla-type" warfare waged by remnants of ousted President Saddam Hussein's Baathist Party and fundamentalists possibly tied to terrorists.
"It's a fragile time in Iraq. Bush wants to show off to the world that allies are still standing by him," Niblett said. "If you are George Bush, what you don't want is Europe lined up against you."
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