Iraq Interlude
A whirlwind visit, some turkey and fixin's--and wheels up
The point of the trip, in purely political terms, was to supplant one image with another. But anyone who saw the tear in his eye and the breadth of his smile knew the surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad was more than just about politics. The energy in the room, President Bush said of the huge, tented dining hall where he helped serve members of the Army's 1st Armored Division turkey dinner, was "beyond belief."
Still, politics is seldom very far from any president's official act. So, genuine as George W. Bush's desire to visit the troops in Iraq was (the president was so excited, he climbed into the cockpit of Air Force One to watch Col. Mark Tilman land the big jet under a crescent moon), the political implications weren't real difficult to parse. Some Democratic presidential hopefuls had already begun running spots of Bush's famous aircraft-carrier landing months ago, against the backdrop of a huge "Mission Accomplished" banner, to decry what they call the president's mismanagement of post-war Iraq. With the U.S. economy now chugging unambiguously along, Iraq has become the biggest blot on Bush's copybook--and not just with Democrats but with growing numbers of voters. To the extent last week's 2 1/2-hour interlude can put a new gloss on the Iraq venture, it will help reduce its potential toxicity when the political season begins in earnest, right after the New Year.
Not that anyone should have any illusions about the challenges in Iraq. Bush may deride the insurgents there as "thugs and assassins," but despite the tough tactics U.S. forces are now using against them (Page 31), they continue to inflict significant casualties. Rebuilding (Page 24) will also be a bear. Images are important. In the end, however, they seldom succeed in masking a messy reality. -Brian Duffy
This story appears in the December 8, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.