WTF Is It Now?!?

Aides prodded reluctant Bush on Iraq trip
'You're going, dammit! Do NOT make me call your mother!'

"Do you have any idea how many IEDs are on this road?" one soldier shouted, referring to improvised explosive devices or roadside bombs. "I have to get back to my base. I don't want to lose a soldier because the president wants us to sit here."

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?" With Bush safely back at his Crawford ranch on Friday, White House supporters seized on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day visit to Iraq as a public-relations coup that could boost troop morale and Republican fund raising. - - from Yahoo news.

Bush delivers a turkey
To President Bush, America's soldiers are nothing more than props for his never-ending campaign. They were props on May 1 and they were props on Thanksgiving Day.

It is worth remembering that while the president enjoys being photographed with soldiers he passed on an opportunity to become a soldier himself, ducking out to the National Guard -- and then going AWOL from the guard.

The May 1 campaign appearance produced the Flight-jacket George doll, and perhaps the Thanksgiving photo op will give us Army-jacketed George delivering a plate of turkey. The turkey can symbolize his Iraq policy. - - from an editorial in the Berkshire Eagle.

Electoral raid on Baghdad
"George Bush becomes the first U.S. president to visit Iraq in order to provide the television pictures required by his re-election campaign," the article (in The Independent) said, charging that Mr. Bush went to Baghdad to upstage "his undeclared Democratic opponent (Mrs. Clinton)." - - taken from the Bushmoonie Times.

Political stunt
Many Iraqis on Friday angrily dismissed President Bush's brief cloak-and-dagger Thanksgiving Day visit as a political stunt to boost his ratings at home, and others said he squandered an opportunity to meet with Iraqis and see first hand the problems they face.

"He came for only two hours. He didn't see how the Iraqis are living and suffering," said Fatima Star, 38, a housewife. "He doesn't care about the Iraqi people. He only cares about his troops."

"He wants to gain political favor from people in the United States before the elections," said Mathil Aziz, 26, a teacher. "He cares more about his own personal interest than the Iraqi people."