The food-stamp economy
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Annapolis is picturesque backdrop for peace talks
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - "Don't give up the ship" read the slogan embroidered across a flag at the ornate hall where more than 40 countries gathered to launch a new Middle East peace drive on Tuesday.
Did this longtime U.S. Navy slogan serve as an unintended metaphor for past peacekeeping efforts?
In trying to reach an agreement to settle the long-running conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, Bush is following in the footsteps of past U.S. presidents including President Bill Clinton and his father, President George H.W. Bush.
But he is facing deep skepticism as he takes on the effort with just over a year left in his administration.
Delegates at the 44-nation gathering sat around a U-shaped table under the soaring frescoes and chandeliers in the hall at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Bush appeared on stage with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and read aloud the freshly reached text formalizing the launch of talks aimed at reaching a peace agreement by the end of 2008.
The walls on Memorial Hall bear the names of academy graduates killed in action. In keeping with the naval theme, paintings on the ceilings depict ships at sea.
The academy, in the historic city of Annapolis 32 miles (51 km) from Washington, was chosen as the venue for the conference in part because of its proximity to Washington and also because it was relatively easy to secure.
The 350-year-old city served as the first U.S. peacetime capital from 1783 to 1784 after the signing of the Treaty of Paris formally ending the Revolutionary War with Britain.
The academy offered a picturesque, waterfront setting amid colorful autumn foliage. It also is a fresh venue, which may have been part of its attractiveness to U.S. officials organizing the conference.
Like Annapolis, the Camp David presidential retreat and Wye River plantation are near Washington, but the Bush administration may have wanted to avoid sites that offer reminders of past Middle East peacemaking efforts that foundered.
"Don't Give Up the Ship" is attributed to Capt. James Lawrence, his last words as he lay wounded in a battle on the Atlantic with the British in 1813.
(Reporting by Caren Bohan, editing by Jackie Frank)
