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| Iraq |
| Bush makes surprise farewell visit to Iraq |
| 2008-12-14 |
| President Bush on Sunday made a farewell visit to Iraq, a place that defines his presidency for better or worse, just 37 days before he hands the war off to a successor who has pledged to end it. Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time, after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington and an 11-hour flight. Bush planned a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two were marking the recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which sets a deadline of Dec. 31, 2011, for the withdrawal of all American troops. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the agreement was "a remarkable document — unique in the Arab world because it was publicly debated, discussed and adopted by an elected parliament." Hadley said the trip "shows that we are moving into a different relationship ... with Iraqis rightfully exercising greater sovereignty, we in an increasingly subordinate role." It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20. Bush's most recent Iraq stop was over 15 months ago, in September 2007. For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight — even after weapons of mass destruction, the initial justification for invading Iraq, were not found — as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq. After a 10-hour-plus fight, Bush was met at the airport by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander Gen. Raymond Odierno. The president then climbed aboard a helicopter for a five-minute flight to the presidential palace. Other Iraqi officials on Bush's agenda were Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the country's two vice presidents, the speaker of the Council of Representatives and the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani. Signs of the security gains made in Iraq, Bush arrived in daylight and was welcomed with a formal arrival ceremony — a flourish that was not part of his previous three trips to Iraq. Still, the trip was conducted under heavy security and a strict cloak of secrecy. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and police officers blocked streets, checked for roadside bombs and brought traffic to a standstill from Camp Victory, near the airport, to the Green Zone. And people with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans. The White House tried to avoid raising suspicion about the president's whereabouts by putting out false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday. Bush's visit came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates' unannounced stop in Iraq on Saturday, at a sprawling military base in the central part of the country. Gates will be the lone Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet in the Obama administration. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #6 FREEREPUBLIC > AGILITY IN TRAQ: BUSH DUCKS THROWN SHOES, from TV Correspondent. Again, despite entrenchments at this time US domination of desired OWG-NWO is NOT assured or absolute, whereas Radical Islam [includ IRAN]is not only NOT defeated but is still capable of victory, and is actually trying to NUCLEARIZE WHILE BREAKING UP PAN-ASIAN ORDER [Nuclear States espec Russia China India, + large areas/parts of Oil-Rich, etc. AFRICA]. BREAKUP OF PAN-ASIAN COLD WAR ORDER > MIDST OF MSM-NET PERCEIVED " US DECLINE" = ESTABLISH PRO-ISLAMIST/MUSLIM-SPECIFIC AUTONOMOUS ANDOR SOVEREIGN ENCLAVES, FOLLOWED BY FORMAL STATES, THEN MERGE OR INTEGRATE LATER INTO THE "OWG CALIPHATE/ISLAMIST-JIHADIST STATE" [Nuclearized]. THROWN SHOES > IMO SYMBOLIZES HOW FAR THE US = US-ALLIED STILL HAVE TO GO ALA WINNING THE HEARTS AND MINDS" OF WORLD MUSLIMS = NON-ISLAM, AND IN SPITE OF ANY EFFECTS OR MILPOL CONSEQUENCES AS PER THE "US-GLOBAL RECESSION/DEPRESSION". |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-14 19:14 |
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| Posted by: Crerese the Great9942 2008-12-14 16:24 |
| #4 The BBC has a big splash about an Iraqi reporter throwing his shoes at Bush. The grin on the BBC anchor's face had to be seen to be believed. He of course enlightened the viewers about Arab culture and shoes being an insult. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-14 15:42 |
| #3 the national hysteria was inexcusable Substitute the national media for the American public, and I'd agree completely, Verlaine. We have no idea what the American public thinks, because the media have made a point of distorting whatever they couldn't bury. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-12-14 15:03 |
| #2 Procopius, it's truly infuriating to be reminded how orwellian the public square has become/remained WRT Bush and many other topics. Here's another whopper: the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq. Oh, really? Is that why votes compelling such departure have fared so well in the people's house, where the opposition has reigned for two years? Or why the newly elected and pathetic CinC flip-flopped like the shallow newbie he is on the topic, ending up guess where? One thing that is right, but isn't stated here. The American public pretty much disgraced itself and undercut the motivation of many by its whining and impatience and general childish behavior on Iraq. Even with the administration's disastrous abandonment of politics and public communication, the national hysteria was inexcusable. It's not really a good idea to see just how long the dedicated and responsible few can carry the pathetic self-indulgent and ignorant many. Such experiments belong in coffe-house or bar b.s. sessions, not reality. Yet that's what we've been doing, and will now perhaps embark on with earnest, if the new crew dares to follow in the sad steps of its recent Dem forbears. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-12-14 12:35 |
| #1 AP BDS on display - But in many ways this was a victory lap without a victory: Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a remarkably unpopular war. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have been killed in the war, which has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began more than five and a half years ago. Gee, they just can't stop can they. Forty years after V-E day we still had around 250,000 troops in Germany, spending billions every years, and suffering hundreds of deaths [largely due to training and traffic accidents]. And you think the war was 'popular' in early '45 with the casualty lists mounting - you weren't there. People wanted to get it over just as much then as now, but they wanted it to end just like this one - in victory. Then again, you have no history that is more than 6 or 8 years. No thank you AP for working as hard as you could to be the open conduit for unquestioned enemy propaganda. Upset your side lost? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-12-14 11:02 |