{"id":7675,"date":"2006-06-13T13:45:25","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T17:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7675"},"modified":"2006-06-13T13:45:25","modified_gmt":"2006-06-13T17:45:25","slug":"a-dramatic-photo-op","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-dramatic-photo-op\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘dramatic’ photo-op"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you’ve probably heard, Bush made an unannounced trip<\/a> to Baghdad today. It’s not altogether clear why. Apparently, however, the visit was “dramatic” — because the AP says so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President [tag]Bush[\/tag] assured Iraqis in a [tag]surprise[\/tag] [tag]visit[\/tag] to [tag]Baghdad[\/tag] on Tuesday that the United States stands with them and their new government. “It’s in our interest that Iraq succeed,” he said, seated alongside newly named Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri [tag]al-Maliki[\/tag].<\/p>\n

The dramatic trip came as Bush sought to bolster support for Iraq’s fledgling government and U.S. war policy at home.<\/p>\n

“I’ve come to not only look you in the eye. I’ve also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it keeps its word,” Bush told al-Maliki.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not quite sure what this means. It’s a perfectly nice, Bush-like soundbite, but in terms of explaining the point of this “[tag]dramatic[\/tag] [tag]trip[\/tag],” it doesn’t tell us much.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as political theater goes, the trip was a little thin. Bush drops in unannounced for five hours — al-Maliki didn’t know the president was coming until a few minutes before he arrived — offers a few platitudes, and gets back on the plane. This conveys a clear message that … well, I’m not sure what it conveys.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to see how the [tag]publicity[\/tag] [tag]stunt[\/tag] will change much. When Bush has to wear “a 25-pound flak jacket” during the helicopter flight from the airport to the green zone, and the option of having the president stay overnight in Iraq was “never seriously considered<\/a>,” it only reinforces the fact that the country is deadly, dangerous, and unstable.<\/p>\n

Having said that, today’s theatrics are a key reminder of one thing: these guys don’t know how to govern, but they’re second to none in putting together a nice [tag]photo-op[\/tag].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you’ve probably heard, Bush made an unannounced trip to Baghdad today. It’s not altogether clear why. Apparently, however, the visit was “dramatic” — because the AP says so. President [tag]Bush[\/tag] assured Iraqis in a [tag]surprise[\/tag] [tag]visit[\/tag] to [tag]Baghdad[\/tag] on Tuesday that the United States stands with them and their new government. “It’s in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}