Please keep it clean and civil.
President Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Anbar Province, Iraq
President Bush, along with his National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley made a detour on the way to a summit in Australia to stop off in Iraq and Anbar Province. He was met on arrival by Secretary of Defense, Bill Gates. Joining Gates were Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East. Fallon flew aboard Gates’ Air Force plane from Washington. Condoleeza Rice was also in Iraq with the President. In other words, the President has assembled his war cabinet on the ground of the province that just a year ago was written off as a lost cause. Although I doubt it is the President’s motive, you gotta love the cajones and in your face style. And the fact that the press corps was totally fooled.
AP - Sept. 3: President Bush arrives at Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, Iraq, as Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the multinational forces in Iraq, left and CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon, right, look on.
AP - Sept. 3: President Bush meets with Marines at Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, Iraq.
AP - Sept. 3: President Bush meets with a Marine combat patrol unit at Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, Iraq.
AP - President Bush arrives at Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, Iraq. From left are, Gen. David Petraeus, the president, Adm. William Fallon, outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.
AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq — President Bush and his national security team made a first-hand assessment of the war in Iraq and prospects for political reconciliation Monday as a showdown nears with Congress over the U.S. troop buildup.
The president secretly flew 11 hours to this air base in a remote part of Anbar province, bypassing Baghdad in a symbolic expression of impatience with political paralysis in the nation’s capital. The gesture underscored the U.S. belief that the spark for progress may come at the local level.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush and conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, before a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.
To a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration’s war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein.
Bush has held up Anbar as an example of recent progress, especially on the security front, although the province is still economically deprived and not yet stable enough to turn over to full Iraqi control.
Two things I noticed, first no flak jackets on the President or the other dignataries, and two, none of the articles mention Condi Rice, although she is obviously there as the picture clearly shows.
The Washington Post notes the full schedule for this 6 hour visit:
Despite what military officials describe as disagreements within the ranks of the Pentagon and U.S. military over when and how quickly to carry out any U.S. troop reduction in Iraq, the official said he believed senior U.S. military and defense leaders plan to give “collective” rather than independent recommendations to Bush. In addition to meetings with Maliki, Gates and other military officials also plan to meet with Iraqi leaders including President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih.
Watch the video of President Bush speaking to the troops and leaders of Anbar:
Posted by Sara
on 09/03/2007 at 09:01 AM in Terrorism-War-Foreign Turmoil - Iraq -
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