Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

By DEB RIECHMANN The Associated Press Monday, September 3, 2007; 8:06 AM

AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday, using the war zone as a backdrop to argue his case that the buildup of U.S. troops is helping stabilizing the nation.

The president secretly flew 11 hours to Iraq as a showdown nears with Congress over whether his decision in January to order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq is working.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush, and convened a meeting with the country's top political leaders to highlight Bush administration hopes for prodding Iraq into a "bottom-up" approach to national reconciliation.

Gates conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, before opening a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.

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'Bottom up' is probably appropriate. Everyone connected with Iraq has been caught with his ass in the air at one time or another.

It's interesting that 'Gates conferred' with all these top people and Bush 'used the area as a backdrop.' Can't we just put this president in front of an 'Iraq screen' and save all that cost? The trip or the backdrop scenery (or the reccomendations) didn't change a damned thing.

What an unmitigated disaster this president continues to be.

* For more in-depth articles by Jim on Iraq War, check out Opinion-Columns.com