President Bush in Iraq Today

I guess he wants to rack up some frequent flyer miles on Air Force One before they take the keys away.

Actually, the President sent a very interesting message with his choice of locations for his landing and meetings:

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.

…

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.

The countdown to the Democrats crying about playing politics ahead of Petraeus’ report next week is officially underway. As if constantly shilling for America’s defeat for electoral gains isn’t playing politics.

As someone who has soured on Bush in the last year (mainly over immigration amnesty), I have to hand it to the guy. This is quite a gesture, going to the heart of the region that was probably the most dangerous place on Earth not so long ago and is now a true success story for us.

posted by DrewM. at 10:10 AM

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