On Thanksgiving, President George W. Bush took a trip to Iraq. Arriving at the former Saddam
International Airport under cover of darkness, he spent a few top-secret hours with American troops stationed in Baghdad. He posed with the troops, and with a turkey, and then headed back to the United States. Operation Impress-People-so-I-can-get-re-elected lasted only a few hours, and was hailed by the media as an “unprecedented” trip to show his “support” for the troops. However, the unprecedented nature of secrecy and security show just how wonderful things in Iraq truly are.
Bush left his Crawford, Texas ranch in an unmarked vehicle, and on the way to the airport he remarked that he hadn’t sat in traffic for two years. Reporters back at the Ranch and most Bush staffers had no idea that the President would be flying to Baghdad. Senior White House staffers discussed the trip using secret code words.
Bush flew to Andrews Air Force base where he got on Air Force One, along with a sizable media contingent to saturate the airwaves with the images of Bush hamming it up with the troops. However, since secrecy was key, reporters had to surrender any electronic communication devices until they were on the way back to the United States. On the way across the Atlantic, the mission was almost scrubbed when a British Airways pilot spotted Air Force One. He radioed controllers in England who replied that he was seeing a small private jet instead.
Bush landed before dawn, met and posed with some 600 troops and had a turkey dinner. He never, however, left the grounds of the airport. He did not tour Baghdad, which, according to the Bush Administration, has come a long way since the war ended. He did not visit any of the Iraqi schools that have supposedly been reopened. He didn’t meet with the thousands of Iraqis who are supposedly so grateful that America liberated them from the clutches of Saddam Hussein.
It would have been more impressive had Bush announced the visit ahead of time, and spent more than a few hours at arguably the most secure location in Iraq. However, that would have been foolish. The secret nature of this trip, along with its short duration shows that the situation in Iraq is nowhere near as secure as Bush and Karl Rove would like us to think. Too bad Bush couldn’t skirt some of those 600 troops back with him, under a blanket of darkness and secrecy. Instead, they leave in bodybags far less accommodating than any Boeing 747.
