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Monday, September 03, 2007

What, no turkee?
Posted by Jill | 11:06 AM
The blowmonkey-in-chief wanted to play soldier again, so they've hitched up the Mobile Bubble and taken Bubble Boy to Anbar province (emphases mine):

President Bush made a surprise visit to this isolated and well fortified air field in Anbar province Monday to meet with top U.S. and Iraqi officials and to showcase what he calls one of the successes of his decision to surge 30,000 additional troops into Iraq.

Bush slipped out of a side door of the White House for the furtive trip that was aimed at bolstering his position for not drawing down troops from Iraq. During six hours on the ground here, the president was to meet with Army Gen. David Petreaus and other military commanders and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, before holding a session with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and members of his central government.

[snip]

"The president felt this is something he had to do in order to put himself in a position to make some important decisions," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said of the visit.


What, fly into a heavily fortified base, surrounded by extra security, into one of the few places where the violence has decreased, so he can have a fucking clue as to what's going on in the only part of Iraq that is, for the moment, not hopelessly FUBAR?

At Andrews, Secret Service agents collected computers, cell phones and other electronic devices from reporters. The journalists then loaded onto two passenger vans, which drove them into the large, heavily guarded hangar that houses the president's plane.

Reporters waited in the plane, with the window shades down, as the president slipped out of the White House and traveled to Andrews in a discreet two-car convoy, instead of his usual motorcade, aides said. Once the president was aboard, Air Force One was pushed out of the hangar into the darkness to begin the 12-hour flight to Iraq.

In flight, reporters were told their precise destination and had their computers returned to them, although they were instructed to turn off their wireless function to prevent the signals from allowing the president's plane to be tracked.

"The president heard about this idea and instantly took to it and that's why we're doing it," Hadley said.


Of course he took to it; it's just like being in a movie, with himself in the Harrison Ford role.

Here at this isolated air base in the middle of a northern Iraqi desert, officials said there should be no security concerns. The base, which was captured by Australian troops from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's forces during the early weeks of the war, has a 13-mile perimeter and is home to 10,000 U.S. troops, including 7,000 Marines and 3,ooo members of the Army.


So it's JUST LIKE BAGHDAD, right? After all, isn't all of Iraq this fortified?

Although Bush has touted the substantial political and security progress made in Anbar province, he was not scheduled to leave the security of the base to see those changes first hand.

"He is on a tight timeline," said Gen. Doug Lute, a deputy national security adviser, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We didn't really approach it like he is going to leave the base."

"He has to get into Australia" for the economic conference he will attend upon leaving Iraq, Gillespie added.


You bet he's on a tight timeline. The article says that Anbar, the "relatively peaceful" part of Iraq, still comes in at #5-6 in terms of the level of violence. They have to get him the fuck out of there before something happens. After all, Bubble Boy might spontaneously combust if anything should happen to burst his bubble.

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