Rice Downplays Security " Problems " in Iraq

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=2&u=/afp/20031128/pl_afp/us_iraq_bush_rice_031128170046

<snip>

Concerns about rising insurgent violence led the White House to impose a vow of silence on media, lifting it only once Bush was safely away from the Iraqi capital after a mere two and a half hours spent confined at Baghdad airport.

Some critics, including the presidential campaign of retired general Wesley Clark (news - web sites), said the brevity and cloak-and-dagger nature of the visit -- which the White House sold as a morale-booster -- actually showed how little Washington has accomplished in Iraq since taking control in April.

"The trip highlights how insecure Iraq is and shows how we need to get our allies in to get the American face off the occupation," Clark spokesman Jamal Simmons told AFP.

"Hopefully, President Bush realized, when he looked into the faces of those soldiers, that he owes them a success strategy in Iraq so that we can get back to the business of fighting the war on terrorism," said Simmons.

Just hours after returning with Bush from the surprise Thanksgiving holiday visit, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) told ABC television that "it's just not true that nothing has changed" since the March invasion.

[peterh]

1. Excuse me…Bush was looking at the soldier’s faces???

This was a friggin’ photo-op….he was looking at the Camera…the soldiers were mere props…It’s lights, action…………ok, that’s a wrap….let’s get outta here…

[IndianaGreen]

2. ""The Iraqis are taking control of their own future."

Rice's only true statement inside a pack of lies! If things are so rosy, why didn't she go to "safe" Mosul, where another GI was killed as she was babbling to the media.

[soothsayer]

3. That is so funny! Bush was actually terra-fied to go

Last night our local news talk station was quoting (dumbya I think) as saying 'if news of the trip had leaked out, they would've turned the plane around.' Made me lol! Sounds like "if you kids don't stop it we're turning this car around RIGHT NOW."

Iraq is a MESS and it's georgie-porgie's mess and if he set foot in it (not just in the airport, but on the actual ground) he'd prolly die like a dog, like our poor soldiers. Persona non grata to the thankful Iraqis.

[PaDUer]

4. I had to lol last nite

when the news was saying how they landed w/ * in the cockpit with the curtains drawn without any lights on..Isn't this their normal procedure when doing things sneakily..What a disgrace!

[LiberalFighter]

6. How did they make sure that the flight controllers in Iraq

know it was AF1??

[truthisfreedom]

5. somehow the whole bush trip to Iraq thing makes me think of Nelly...

So I can get to stompin in my air force ones
(Big boys) stompin in my air force ones

[tabasco]

7. Just some minor maiming and dying problems ...

on a daily basis. The neocon elite in charge of our country could give a rat's ass for our troops. You don't choose war first if you care about the troops. Bush can stage all the photo ops he wants. The entire WORLD knows that he caused a needless war, with all the terrible consequences. Photo ops also will not change the ever increasing level of violence in Iraq. We are in a deadly QUAGMIRE, and we must not fail to hold the Bush administration responsible. They can hide the caskets in Dover, but they can't cover up the funerals in the hometowns.

[PaDUer]

8. What about the ones

that haven't been sent home yet and are still out there somewhere.

[calimary]

9. One of the good things about bush NOT winning next year would be

NOT having to suffer through the completely INSUFFERABLE blatherings of this pathetic woman and her gapped-toothed, bush-apologist spin-mongering. "Dr." Rice should be sued for malpractice - for the shit advice she gives.

I dream, daily, of the moment when she's shamed back into relative obscurity.

[drb]

10. Hey, there's no security problem in Iraq!

Don't you remember Shrub-holio going on nationwide TV in Iraq and saying, "I'm comin' over there, y'all, so whatever yew got, BRING IT ON!!!"

Oh, sorry. I'm channeling that alternate universe thing again.

Never mind.

[teryang]

11. Spent with front line troops?

Confined at the airport for two and one half hours?