Aides Prodded Reluctant Bush on Iraq Trip

[radfringe]

Aides Prodded Reluctant Bush on Iraq Trip
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&ncid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20031128/pl_nm/bush_iraq_dc
Fri Nov 28, 3:19 PM ET -- By Adam Entous

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - For a president fond of a tough-guy image, George W. Bush was uneasy when an aide casually asked him, "You want to go to Baghdad?"

---snip---

It was White House chief of staff Andrew Card who first proposed the surprise trip -- not the president.

"Andy (Card), as he often does, said (to Bush) almost in passing: 'Thanksgiving's coming up. Where do you want to go? You want to go to Baghdad?"' Rice recalled, and the planning got under way.

Seven months after his dramatic landing in a flight suit on the USS Abraham Lincoln with its "Mission Accomplished" banner, Bush conceded about the Iraq visit, "I was the biggest skeptic of all."

Instead of a flight suit, Bush wore a standard Army jacket to meet with the troops, and acknowledged he thought "all along" it might be too risky and that he "had a lot of questions" about security.

---snip---

More than 180 U.S. soldiers have died since Bush declared major combat operations over in May with his controversial visit to the aircraft carrier.

He has seen his popularity decline as Americans' concern over the operation has grown. Experts said the visit could boost Bush in the polls, but doubted it would last.

"Is this a moment that the RNC (Republican National Committee (news - web sites)) will try to use as a fund-raising moment? Yes. ... (But) it's a one-day winner. This is not a solution to anything," said Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Dan Feldman, a National Security Council director under former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites), called the trip a "great PR stunt ... yet another in a long line of photo ops that don't say anything concrete about improving security and what our long-term plans are."

Rice denied the trip was politically motivated. "This was generated out of the president and the policy side," she said, but declined to say if political adviser Karl Rove or Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman were among the handful of aides who knew about the trip.

She said the administration had briefly considered a visit to Baghdad during the summer or tagged on to Bush's recent London trip.

[Malva Zebrina]

1. you know

the last five paragraphs in this piece are not falling over adoring Bush. They are negative and not complimentary and that is rather a switch, isn't it? Interesting that Rice has received the job of mommy to Bush--defending him--I thought she was national security advisor--LOL---it turns out she is more of a shill fending off criticism of Bush than anything else.

[sweettater]

2. chicken hawk

= chicken $hit! :toast:

[DemExpat]

3. Dupe

See this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=244203

DemEx DU Moderator

[Faygo Kid]

4. He is a COWARD, and a cartoon character.

Every fiber of his being demonstrates that GWB has no convictions, no core, no compass. He is a coward who cares only about his pulse rate after a jog, rewarding his big contributors, and doing what Cheney/Rove put in front of him. He is at best a cartoon character, and I remain madder than hell that Gore didn't destroy him in the 2000 debates, as he could - and should - have. With apologies to Bugs Bunny.