Bushs' Thanksgiving Trip All Stuffing, No Meat

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Bush Thanksgiving trip to Iraq was all stuffing, no meat
World deserves more

Published Sunday, November 30, 2003
by Neal Heller


It made for a great television moment. It was inspiring in its secrecy - and
the American troops stationed in Iraq loved it.
It was a political and public relations coup that undoubtedly has already
reaped benefits for the president.
As we already know, President Bush flew into Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day and
enjoyed a couple of hours with 600 American soldiers located in Baghdad
International Airport.
It was a poignant moment as those in attendance were genuinely surprised to
see Bush - and he was truly touched by the troops' reaction to his
appearance.
And then, in a flash, he was gone. Three hours in Iraq and the president was
back on Air Force One returning to the United States.
All in all, the trip into Baghdad was a huge symbolic success.
Unfortunately, much as the tearing down of a Saddam statue in the middle of
Baghdad several months ago turned out to mean virtually nothing in the grand
scheme of things, this grand gesture on the part of the president holds
little more than symbolic meaning as well.
In the words of the little old lady in the Wendy's Hamburgers commercials so
many years ago, isn't it time for the American people to ask the question:
"Where's the beef?"
Symbolic victories are fine as long as substantive success is a part of the
equation. This administration has given us many feel-good moments, but very
little in the way of true substance that has made a difference.
Since Sept. 11, 2001 Americans have stood by their president and applauded
his call to end worldwide terrorism. He has said all the right things, but
has anything really been accomplished in curtailing terrorist activities?
Nobody has supported this war more than I did since the threat of war
against Saddam became war itself. However, it has come time to question just
exactly what we are accomplishing in Iraq. For that matter what did we
accomplish in Afghanistan? It seems that we moved around a lot of dirt in
Afghanistan, but what real progress has been made?
In Iraq, we showed the world that we can defeat a severely inferior army in
a matter of days. Now, we are also showing the world that we had no idea
what we were getting ourselves into.
It has become more apparent each day that we had no long-term plan for the
aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, it has become even
more obvious that Iraq did not present the threat to world peace that was
promulgated upon us by this administration.
The announcement that we would turn over Iraq to a new government by this
coming June is simply incredible. There is no evidence whatsoever of the
ability of the Iraqis to govern themselves. If, in fact, the US makes such a
transition in June, it will result in complete anarchy and Saddam or someone
similar will return to power very quickly.
The president's appearance in Baghdad was as much for the American troops as
it was for the Iraqi people. If the people of Iraq sense a premature exit by
our forces, it will bring chaos to those trying to piece this mess of a
country back together again.
If the Iraqi people who have been supportive of the US effort there think
that we are going to abandon the cause, they will be forced to relinquish
any power they may have out of fear for Saddam sympathizers.
So what exactly are we to do? Yes, Saddam needed to go. However, if there
were no weapons of mass destruction to be had, one must wonder just how big
a threat he really was. This might very well go down as the biggest
intelligence failure in history.
Did the administration misjudge or misinterpret the intelligence reports on
Iraq or did they simply choose to ignore the evidence and move on Saddam
regardless? What about the real threat coming from Iran where we know they
have nuclear capability? How about North Korea, which not only has nuclear
weapons but has also threatened to use them?
Then, of course, there is Syria and those great friends of America, the
Saudis. Why have we chosen to ignore those two countries that have blatantly
supported and funded terrorism, and have direct links to Al Qaeda, Hamas and
Hezbollah, while focusing on Iraq? These questions must be asked and
answered by a Bush administration that is losing credibility day by day. If
the war on terrorism is more than just symbolism, it is time to get to the
core.
Support for this war effort will continue to erode if the American people
don't understand what the end game really is.
We are not interested in a quagmire that we cannot get out of. Vietnam
taught us that. We want to know why we went into Iraq and how do we
extricate ourselves as quickly as possible.
Most importantly, what exactly will we have accomplished by going there in
the first place? At this point, the war in Iraq has done nothing more than
line the pockets of companies that are very close to the Bush
administration. Since the so-called end to major combat more American troops
have died than before. There appears to be no hope for a real government to
be in place anytime soon and every day more of our soldiers are killed.
It is time for the president to give us more than symbolic gestures. It is
time for substance and not political maneuvers designed to play on our
emotions.
In the end I'd like to believe that the American people will see through all
the pomp and circumstance and judge this war on its merits. The only real
issue is whether anything was gained or not by going to war in Iraq.
That is how this war will be judged and ultimately that is how this
president will be judged come next November.

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"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator." - GW Bush 12/18/2000.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of
Iraq."
-- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz,