President Bush greeted his war commanders with salutes Monday during a surprise visit to a U.S. air base in Iraq’s Anbar province.
Air Force One touched down under a blazing sun at 3:42 p.m. (7:42 a.m. EDT) at Al Asad Air Base, for a six-hour presidential visit to tout a “remarkable turnaround” in the mostly Sunni area west of Baghdad.
After exiting the aircraft, a line of military officials, including top war commander Gen. David Petraeus, welcomed Bush with smiles, salutes and hand shakes in the desert heat.
Bush plans to eat dinner with U.S. troops and to meet with top military commanders, the U.S. ambassador, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and provincial tribal leaders.
Neat symbolism in that, setting down in Anbar and asking al-Maliki to join him in the heart of Sunni Iraq. I had almost given up on grand gestures.
Pretty much brought everyone with him, too:
Bush is accompanied on the Iraq visit by Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the newly appointed White House official responsible for coordinating Iraq issues.
Also joining Bush on the Iraq visit are U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace.
All in.
Jules Crittenden has the roundup, as well as a pre-emptive strike against rubber turkey propagandists in case anyone so inclined gets acid reflux disease over the news.
I just love it! Katie Couric, eat your heart out!
And Katie Couric was nowhere to be seen, covering the event from Baghdad. Mr. Crittendon is correct. Somehow, someway, the elitist press will twist this into a negative “Mission Accomplished” moment to last a lifetime.
Good for him!!
I remember so vividly the surprise Thanksgiving visit to the troops in Iraq that President Bush made in 2003, and the roar of amazement and welcome that the soldiers gave him when he walked around the curtain. I don’t agree with everything he does, but I like this president a lot.
To do this one week before the good General makes his much-anticipated report took BIG brass indeed…and I love it. He did it because he can, and why not?! I’m sure the troops loved it – not so sure Congress will be all that thrilled. But who cares about them – the President visited HIS troops. The symbolism alone is worth the effort on his part I’m sure.
Heh! I bet the Secret Service was about to loose their minds! This visit probably took 5 years off the life of the head of the security detail.
I wonder if Bush will be getting his photo taken in a mess hall, posing with an ornamental turkey not intended to be served to the troops.
Dude, you really need to read all the way to the end.
Did they send you here from central casting?
LOL
The Surge and Where Do We Go From Here…
This doesn’t mean that everything is peachy – the Yazidi massacre of 500 Iraqis by al Qaeda shows that the terrorists can still inflict serious pain on the Iraqi people, but they can’t keep that kind of tempo going – not in the face of an ongoing mil…
“Did they send you here from central casting?”
LMAO…c’mon! This is serious! Somewhere in theater there is a plastic turkey, but she’s just arrived and hasn’t gained her sea-legs yet…
Lex,
Are you telling me it was not an ornamental turkey and was actually intended to be served to the troops? You really should try to read a little more carefully.
tc, just in case you don’t know… you don’t know.
There isn’t a white jacketed mess steward carving turkey or standing rib roast on the chow line. The turkeys are roasted in the traditional fashion, and cut up in the back where parts are dumped in stainless steel steam trays to be hauled out to the chow line, ala any organized feeding program. The turkey was ornamental in as much as it was hauled out for all to view, not an unusual event, but I’m sure that he was then sent backstage for carving.
Dammit, I’ve violated my own rule of not explaining things to idiots, damn!
Casca,
I have to admit, it’s pretty hard to communicate with people who don’t even bother to read. But if you really wanted to, you could actually follow the link to Tim Blair’s post, the one that says, “A contractor had roasted and primped the turkey to adorn the buffet line”
As I said from the start, it was a show turkey. Befits the president somehow.
It was all soft covers, and no body armor at remffest in Anbar. C-SPAN ran some footage of dubyah getting a brief from a group of wingnut SNCOs, and the idiot with the mic had to drop in a bitch about the tempo of deployment. That’s the kind of guy who needs to strap on some deuce gear, and head out to live with the locals for a while.
tc -
Are you convinced that it really matters if the turkey was ornamental, plastic, papier mache, or cleverly crafted dog crap? Are you that farking shallow? Really? Tell me, do you grow your own Xmas tree from a tiny little seed, nuture it with your own urine for 5 years, and cut it down for display with a nail file, or do you use an ‘ornamental’ tree as an approporiate delegate?
Could it be that the actual point is that he went and that act of selfless leadership just sticks in your craw, and that you are projecting your own pettiness onto your most hated president ever? The fighter jet flying Vietnam volunteer that has just ruined a perfectly peaceful world with his bumbling cowboy ways, in your narrow adolescent view?
Because that would be my guess.
Total stones. I love it. The odd part was that in all my reading yesterday, I didn’t once hear a moonbat ’s familiar cry of “mission accomplished” or any of that. What’s good for democracy in Iraq–and success on the ground–is definitely bad for the ‘bats.
Tough times demand tough leadership. My unofficial count places this as W’s third trip to Iraq in wartime…suck it, moonbats!