Dubya's Baghdad Boondoogle

[KharmaTrain]

In reading the posts and threads here, I wanted to see if I could string a few things together.

When I heard WhittleAss was in Baghdad, I shuddered at the PR game that was taking place. I dreaded seeing the chickenshit deserter, once again, using our military for a cheap photo op...staged for maximum media circus. I was burning for a while thinking if this bastard really gave a damn about those "defending our freedom", he'd spend that evening at Walter Reed or a military rehabilitation hospital...far closer to home in many ways to many Americans. Instead here was another Rovian spectacle...immediate visuals that would pop on TV screens at Thanksgiving gatherings all over the place and being scripted for the $200 million dollar GOOP blitz next September.

Then...I read the emerging international media reports and started hearing the details of this dog and pony show and the anger turned to smiles. First, it's obvious that this was not going to impress anyone who was in the least sceptical of this war or this regime. If anything, this was another iritant for those of us who find more and more reasons every day to hate this regime and are emboldened (and hopefully empowered) to outst this unelected fraud next year. The reaction I was hearing and reading from what I would consider independent sources also showed an incredulous outrage or a semi-polite cynicism as to the timing, staging and motives of this stunt.

This was supposed to be the revisiting of the Abraham Lincoln...instead of "Mission Accomplished", this was to be "Roll-Up The Sleeves, Mission On-Going". To the sheeple who still believe in this war, it's like nudging them "it's OK, really, honestly, this is really OK, we're really winning, we're really safer, etc., Love Bush, Love Bush"...but to the rest of us it's turning into a joke.

I would love to see a pic of the Oxygen Thief being spirited out of Crawford hiding under a Baseball cap (3:1 odds say Texas Rangers), then the confiscation of the press entourage's cellphones (strip search videos would be a plus) and then the bewildered look of the AF1 pilot as Boy Blunder came trotting into the cabin wanting to play flyboy again. I get a sneaky suspicion, Rove would have loved for his maniquin to actually land the plane at Baghdad Bob Hope International...then strut out in the flight suit.

The doofus sneaks in under the cover of darkness, spends less time on the ground than most of us did enduring boring relatives and then never leaves the airport. It's laughable to think this really was a true support for our military...especially in light of the mess he's put our young men and women in and the on-going insults he's done to veterans, military families and returning Iraqi vets (whole and not). This visit again highlights the gap between the haves and have-nots on this Thanksgiving. While Dubya gets to play "Commander In Chief", left behind are 150,000 Americans facing an uncertain future both in that wretched mess of a country and what they'll face when they return here (and here's praying they all do in one piece and soon).

It's getting more obvious this regime is stuck with this combination of Vietnam and Soviet Afghanistan. The "pundits" are sensing the need to rally the faithful as more and more doubt this adventure every day and is becoming a larger and larger albatross around the neck of this regime. In their pigheaded way, they are over-playing the flag-waiving and bully pulpit. The good news is this time it's not to recruit the middle 20%, but to avoid eroding support from their "solid 40%".

This morning I was hearing some talking heads cheering the "gutsy" visit to a war zone, but at the same time it's leaking out how contrived and condescending this "visit" really was. This gives me some good feelings this morning...

Your thoughts....

[salmonhorse]

1. Works for me...

"gutsy" would have been, "Bring It On!!! My ETA is:..."

[ibegurpard]

2. Right. Let's not forget who put us into this situation in the first place

He lied in order to order to get his "wag the dog" war and hundreds of American soldiers and countless Iraquis have paid the price with their lives. So we're supposed to be impressed by his little Thanksgiving escapade? That's like being grateful to the guy who just robbed you blind for coming back and giving you some lunch money.

[watercolors]

3. Good post

I too was very angry at first, but feel as you now. The news media now raing questions about the trip, I wnat to hear that Hillary"s trip was what prompted Rove to make the decision. After all it would make * look pretty bad. Remember she was the only one in congress to visit wounded on Vetrerans also. Also she is not sitting in an airpot at night either, but out among the troops. Makes the shrub look like the wimp he is.

[LibDemAlways]

4. So the chimp put in a cameo, so what?

He's like one of those insufferable talk-show guests with a movie to plug. He makes a big entrance, says a few words, and then lies about having "another engagement" to get out of having to sit through the rest of the show. Of course in the chimp's case the rest of the show means leaving the goddamn hanger, putting himself in real danger, and seeing what his wargasm has wrought. When push comes to shove with the chickenshit it's not "Bring em on" but "I'll take a pass."

[asjr]

5. iraq

Excellent post. I am bothered by this "surprise trip" mostly because GW is using our military to provide a prop for his "re-election." That is so underhanded and blatant it is sickening. They would not be there in the first place but for his greed and stupidity.

[Racenut20]

6. He could also get more photos by

Going down I 35 a bit and visiting the veterans hospital in Waco...OOPS Sorry Awol, you can't go there. Its going to close and move its patients to never never land.

I don't know what you do with the ones who have no where else to go. Pull the plug I guess.

[liberalmuse]

16. The soldiers have to be alive...

and in one piece. We can't have our boy seen with the dead or wounded now, can we? I agree with what someone else said in a post earlier: A visit to Walter Reed, talking and comforting the wounded, would have done him a lot more good than his secret visit to the Baghdad airport.

[arwalden]

7. Please Print This And Mail It To Every Newspaper Possible

Beautifully written.

-- allen

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

8. It seems like Bush has been nothing but a propped-up

media creation from the beginning. If they can succeed and win an election with this, it must mean our country is pretty much a big fantasy as well.

The 2004 election is going to be a complete replay of the 2000 election as far as the mainstream media goes. If enough people listen to the media and ignore reality to elect Bush, I can't even imagine what they will fall for next.

Hopefully more people will ignore the media and look at reality. Maybe grassroots campaign work will convince enough people to do that.

[cosmicdot]

17. "media creation from the beginning" -- basically, george's exact words

Like a puppet, trotted out on stage at intervals so the world can be sure there IS a "president" in the White House, his only seriousness lies in keeping the absolute truth from the American people and the world. Like all alcoholics, he is crafty and cunning and manipulative. He learned early on to make people laugh to cover for his own inadequacies -- those same inadequacies that probably drove him to drink and drug (and drive) in the first place.

Such inadequacies would have been enough to keep anyone else out of ANY public office at ANY level. As he once so truthfully spoke about himself, "You know, I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office."

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=I%27m+basically+a+media+creation+AND+george+W.+bush

[soupkitchen]

9. Stupid Presidental Tricks: The Thanksgiving Special

[bleedingheart]

10. The whole press op made this operation look like the Quagmire

it really is...sneaks in...sneaks out....

If Iraq was so free and happy to have us there Mr Stupid Bastard should have been able to have a public appearance with thousands of cheering Iraqi's...

[madrchsod]

11. all i can say is...

nice job in landing the plane guys...no lights, war zone,and flying thousands of miles with no flight plan. really a risky adventure for a photo shoot.....

[pippin]

12. Now he needs to go to Afghaqnistan

if he wants to keep up with Hilary.

[PSU84]

13. Visiting the troops...

... is pure political theater. Poll ratings down? Pull off a stunt.

The real issues are needless death and destruction in Iraq, going to
war based on lies and deception, undermining the UN and NATO at every
opportunity, exempting the Defense Department from civil service
laws as a first step toward replacing the civil service with
a "spoils system" of federal employment, privatizing services in the
Park Service and Forest Service to make them more friendly
to "development," incurring massive federal budget deficits by
cutting taxes for the top ten percent of earners, focusing tax cuts
on unearned income (interest, dividends, and capital gains) while
raising the share of all taxes paid by workers, failing to address
corporate accounting scandals, awarding huge government contracts to
favored companies, encouraging industries to sue federal government
to prevent it from enforcing environmental regulations and then
making sweetheart out-of-court settlements with those industries,
undermining the basis of Medicare so that private insurers can cherry
pick the healthiest and least costly elderly. And still to come:
turning Social Security from the most successful income support
program in history into a giant 401(k) with huge profits for private
fund managers, and turning Medicaid from insurance for the poor into a limited block grant for the states.

These are the issues, not some Rovian publicity stunt.

[KharmaTrain]

14. Thanks For Replies...I Didn't Know Hillary

...also was in Iraq...actually ON THE GROUND for more than a quick TV show and was there without any of the hoopla.

Of course that's not the case in Dittoland where it's the real distorted Wag The Dog going on...first that Hillary is using HER trip for Political and upstaging the unelected fraud and that this fraud's visit slaps down the bitch by showing him to be the real leader...honest, really, he REALLY is leading...honest!" LOL.

I've been watching Washington Journal and getting a chuckle of all the poltical plants calling in...spinning from far right to left on this thing. I just keep getting a stronger sense that those who will question the motives of this photo-op and will later ridicule and laugh at it will far outweigh those overwhelmed with the contrived "patriotism" this fascist regime employs.

[liberalmuse]

15. I guess there's a fine line between stupid and clever...

and Bush is walking that thin line. One one hand, the hardcore Bush supporters ('Bush was chosen by god') are going to eat this up. On the other hand, those who are becoming disenchanted with Bush may see this as the publicity stunt it was, or it could strengthen their support. And lastly, those of us who already can't stand Bush can only watch, disgusted at the depths Rove and Bush will sink in order to snag some good re-election campaign footage. I thought yesterday that this could have been a brilliant move by Rove, and if this boosted the troops morale, then good, but how could it have? If Bush would have addressed their concerns, and the concerns of the Iraqi people, maybe. However, this was an empty, meaningless, condescending gesture. It was nothing more than an expensive photo op, and once again, our soldiers were treated as nothing more than Bush props.

An endnote: I met a Mormon Republican at a Dean meetup some months ago. He is now a very hardcore Deanie. Bush's stunt on the aircraft carrier was the last straw for him and he started looking for someone else to back after that.

[rumguy]

18. excellent post

the truth will out

[arwalden]

19. This Post Is A Work Of ART!!!

(kick)

-- Allen

[Skittles]

20. a pathetic spectacle

he is a f***ing disgrace.