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Bush Stifles Urge to Wring Asian Leaders’ Necks at Summit (Just Kidding)
Bush towers over Japanese leader Taro Aso (L) and Korea’s Lee Myung-Bak (R), at the Official Group Photo for the APEC Leaders’ Summit, Nov. 23, Lima, Peru; photo c. Jorge Vera 2008 El Fotografo snagged this photo of U.S. President George Bush making an incriminating gesture with his hands behind the Japanese and Korean leaders at the APEC Leaders’ Summit, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. Korea’s Lee Myung-Bak looks like he’s flinching in pain. If Bush did secretly feel like wringing the Asian leaders’ necks, I don’t know why. Nearly everything went his way at APEC, and he got to go home with a nifty $300 alpaca-wool poncho. The day prior to…
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(Not) Trailing Bush at the APEC
The Texas cowbow-turned-El Chalan, APEC Leaders’ Summit, Nov. 23, 2008; photo c. Jorge Vera It was 4 p.m. on the final day of the APEC Summit, and most of the leaders and the journalists had left the Minstry of Defense building where the summit had been held. El Fotógrafo and I were huddled in a cubicle in the International Media Center, trying to identify which Asian leader was which in a photo EF had taken earlier that afternoon. “Is that the president of Thailand? No, Vietnam?” We kept checking with a list of published photos of the leaders, most of which appeared to have been taken when the leaders were younger…