Bush flew to Iraq. It’s a smart political move. But it does invite mockery.
Although Bush has touted the substantial political and security progress made in Anbar province, he was not scheduled to leave the security of the base to see those changes first hand.
“He is on a tight timeline,” said Gen. Doug Lute, a deputy national security adviser, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We didn’t really approach it like he is going to leave the base.”
That’s fine. Stay on the remote air base with the 13 mile perimeter and 10,000 soldiers and marines. Alexander the Great, he is not.
Alexander the Great, he is not.
Geez, he’s not even Bullwinkle the Moose.
Bullwinkle tried to conquer central Asia?
My bad — that was Boris Badenov.
Last time he dropped in, June 2006, I was in Amman meeting Iraqi refugees. One of them had spent 36 hours locked down in the Baghdad airport so Chimpy could have his photo op. He might not have had anything better to do, but she did … she was on her way to a conference where she’d be telling the truth about what the occupation had done to the lives of Iraqi women.
is it a good political move?
when these surprise visits first started, they did get a lot of attention and good PR for the president. but now they’ve become a regular fixture of any trip abroad–evey time he passes even remotely in the area, he always includes a “surprise visit”. it happens again and again, and yet his poll numbers are still mired.
i think people don’t see them as that big a deal anymore. any impact they may have had has been dulled by overuse. besides, it’s hard to claim that iraq is going that great if you still can only go unannounced, flying in at the dead of night, with a huge security detachment. they might actually cut the other way for some people.
He’s basically over there to reinforce to the soldiers and contractors that if anyone, anyone at all, backchannels anything to the media about just how much of the “Petraeus Report” is bullshit, they, too, will be Tillmanned.
this may be idle speculation … but it’s good idle speculation!! đŸ˜‰