Juan Cole Puts The chimp's Iraq Photo-op In Perspective!

This is why I read Juan Cole's column daily. He cuts through the bullshit like no one else. al-Maliki did not know about the trip until 5 MINUTES before the chimp arrived???......



President Bush speaks to military personnel and embassy employees at the U.S. Embassy after he arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit to the city, June 13, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

<snip>

This Reuters report has to be read carefully to see how parlous the situation in Iraq really is. The president of the United States, who supposedly conquered the country three years ago, had to keep his visit secret even from the prime minister he was going to visit, until five minutes before their meeting. That tells me Bush's people don't trust Nuri al-Maliki very far. In fact, apparently Bush's people don't trust Bush's people very far-- only Cheney and Condi are said to have known about the trip in the US. And, Air Force One had to land after a sharp bank, to throw off any potential shoulder-held missile launchers in the airport area. The president couldn't go to the Green Zone in a motorcade, for fear of car bombs, but had to be helicoptered in. This ending says it all: "Bush left after night fell to return to Washington. The plane left at a steep angle with its lights out and the shades drawn."

In almost surreal rhetoric, Bush said Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs must be curtailed. He said this after the Iraqi vice president and the head of the biggest bloc in parliament both went off to Tehran and praised Iran's stabilizing role. If Bush thinks that Shiite Iranians are the problem in fanatically Sunni Ramadi and Adhamiyah, we're in even bigger trouble than I thought.

Bush tried to define down victory to a general ability of people to go about their lives. He said it was unreasonable to expect to end "all violence." But Mr. Bush, no one suggested that you end "all violence." The goal here is to win the guerrilla war.

During a guerrilla war, people always go about their daily lives, except when a bomb is going off in their specific neighborhood. So if the goal is that Iraqis should be able to buy bread and go to school and drive to work, most of them have that already most of the time. It is just that little problem of some 12,000 people a year being blown up, assassinated, or beheaded and their heads wrapped in cellophane and stored in banana crates along the side of the road that remains.

http://www.juancole.com/



Journalists wearing bullet-proof vests disembark from Air Force One under the watch of a heavily-armed U.S. Air Force Security Policeman after it touched down carrying President Bush in Baghdad, June 13, 2006. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

I am sure he feels like a stooge.



US President George W. Bush (L) speaks as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (C) and Defence Minister Abdel Kader Jassem al-Obeidi listen during a meeting. Bush's lightning trip to Baghdad threw a spotlight on the fledgling Iraqi government as it seeks to pacify a raging insurgency(AFP/POOL/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

Who the hell is in control of Iraq when the Prime Minister does not know that another head of state has crossed his borders and that PM has FIVE MINUTES notice to make a command appearance next to said head of state. It's incredibly demeaning, embarassing, insulting and an unprecedented breach of diplomatic protocol! One wonders if Cheney gave Bush 5 minutes notice - get your ass on Air Force One - you've "decided" to go to Iraq. Al-Maliki is a puppet of the puppet. I'd like to see a cartoon of al-Maliki, sitting on Bush's lap, and Bush is sitting on Cheney's lap.

The little credibility Al-Maliki may have had has vanished because of this stunt.

speaks volumes. What madness for a photo op.

It also puts one in mind or how scary Bush sees every one. Like the trip around the country on 911. But what did we think he would do when we know his NG record. He did not ever do what his father did and some times I think all this is to show his father what a BIG boy he really is. Crazy thinking but it does pop into my head at times like this. Makes one feel shamed at being American, the crazy stuff this group does.

That even if Maliki was a marked man before that photo, he's doubly so now.

God help him...

either an idiot or a criminal or both...

catch roses at the same time?

It's quite a nice look. Guns and Roses afterall!

:rofl:

Love it!!!

to see Blackwater mercs guarding AF1.

:(

Whatever happened to the good old "soldier"? Have they been reduced to being cannon fodder?

If I were a soldier, I'd sure be pissed that these $1000/day mercs, equipped with the lastest and
greatest equipment and weapons got to guard the CIC and take all the glory.

and I believe Blackwater pays $2000.00/day. :(

and look who one of the bosses is...

<snip>

Cofer Black, a former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now vice-chairman of Blackwater, said the company is ready to tackle more hot spots.

"My company could deploy a reasonable small force under guidance or leadership of any national authority and do a terrific job of protecting, you know, innocent women from being raped, young kids from having their arms hacked off with machetes."

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/12/iraq.contractors/

think!!

his eyes and see the character of his soul..... how many others has Shrub said the same thing about?