|
Bush makes surprise farewell visit to Iraq
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 2008-12-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=257217 |