By
NICHOLAS M. HORROCK
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush returned to the White House late Saturday after ending a five-day European swing by cheering Romania's election to NATO and continuing his effort to build a coalition to disarm Iraq.
Hours earlier, in a steady rain in Bucharest's Piata Revolutiei (Revolution Square), Bush said "the world has suffered enough from fanatics who seek to impose their will through fear and murder."
The NATO alliance of "a new civilized world," Bush said, is confronting "the enemies of freedom and we will prevail."
Alluding to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Bush called him an "aggressive dictator" but said that "the people of Romania understand that aggressive dictators cannot be appeased, or ignored. They must always be opposed!"
Bush spoke a few hundred yards from where communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had to be rescued by security forces in 1989 from angry crowds trying to overthrow the his regime. He was later caught and he and his wife were executed after a trial.
Bush praised the heroes of that uprising as "the many brave Romanians who didn't live to see this day ... . Our prayers are for them and their families."
He said that Romania brought "moral clarity to the alliance; you value freedom because you have lived without it. You know the difference between good and evil because you have seen evil's face."
When a rainbow formed over the square, Bush told the crowd -- estimated in the tens of thousands -- that, "God is smiling on us this day." The crowd in this heavily religious country roared its approval.
He told them that NATO membership would bring them security, new economic opportunities and allies.
"The promises of our alliance are sacred" Bush said and if Romania were to be attacked, the U.S. and NATO "will be by your side."
Still earlier Saturday, Bush told cheering Lithunians that they brought military support, new energy and vitality to the 53-year-old defense alliance. "Our alliance has made a solemn pledge of protection and anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States," he said.
Created to defend Western Europe against the Soviet Union, NATO formalized its transformation to what Bush calls a "21st Century" organization in Prague last week by adding East European members to be seated in 2004, formally establishing a 21,000-person rapid deployment force and agreeing to equip that force with new technology and the ability to fight outside of Europe.
In addition to being feted in Europe's grand palaces and decorated in Lithuania and Romania, Bush's trip has won significant support for his plan to compel Saddam to disarm or face military action.
NATO gave his plan major endorsement and the seven new members (former Soviet states or Warsaw Pact nations such as Romania), gave even more unequivocal support for using military action if necessary.
The Eastern European states see NATO membership as a protection against new domination by Russia, which -- since the times of the czars -- has wanted to dominate its small neighboring states as a buffer against invasion.
Bush flew to St. Petersburg on Friday, ostensibly to reassure Russian President Vladimir Putin that this new and revitalized NATO is not a threat. Putin seemed to grudgingly accept Bush's promise that Russia is now a friend of NATO, but their talk about Iraq did not seem to go as well.
Putin said that Russia will work to disarm Iraq through the framework of the United Nations, but pointedly brought up Saudi Arabian connections to the hijackers who attacked America and the weapons of mass destruction possessed by Pakistan.
After a 90-minute meeting at the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Bush and Putin briefed reporters on what Putin called a "very, very frank" exchange.
The Russian president said Russia will work to disarm Iraq, but stressed that it should be through the United Nations and should allow the inspectors to do their work.
When an American reporter asked Putin whether Russia had been invited to contribute military support to fight Iraq should force become necessary, a grim-faced Putin forcefully suggested the war on terror should be ferreting out sources of financial support for terrorists. "We should not give a chance to anyone who is either engaged in terror or who is supporting (it).
"I understand the second part of your question has to do with Iraq," the Russian president said. Putin commented that 16 out of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attack on America were Saudi Arabian citizens. (Other accounts suggested the number was 15.)
Then, seeming to bring up almost every tender issue in the U.S. war on terrorism, Putin asked: "Where has Osama bin laden taken refuge? They say somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We know that Mr. Musharraf (Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf) is going to achieve stability in his country and we are supporting him.
"But what can happen with armies armed with weapons that exist in Pakistan, including weapons of mass destruction, we are not sure on that aspect and we should not forget about that. And we have to make sure that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction in its possession."
To at least some observers, it seemed that Putin was suggesting that the United States deal with Saudi Arabia, a long-time ally in the Middle East, and control Pakistan's nuclear weapons before pressing for war against Iraq.
Later a White House official said that he read Putin's remarks to suggest the whole world should contribute to the war on terror.
Putin never answered the question of whether he was asked to contribute arms to a invasion of Iraq.
"Diplomats have carried out a very difficult, very complex work," he said. "And we do believe that we have to stay within the framework of the work being carried out by the Security Council of the United Nations."
One important issue to the Russians is the enormous investment that Russian has in developing the vast oil reserves in southern Iraq, whose oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's.
Since Soviet days, Russia has sought to be involved in Iraq's energy resources.