Aides Prodded Reluctant Bush on Iraq Trip

[pruner]

By Adam Entous

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - For a president fond of a tough-guy image, George W. Bush was uneasy when an aide casually asked him, "You want to go to Baghdad?"

<snip>

It was White House chief of staff Andrew Card who first proposed the surprise trip -- not the president.

"Andy (Card), as he often does, said (to Bush) almost in passing: 'Thanksgiving's coming up. Where do you want to go? You want to go to Baghdad?"' Rice recalled, and the planning got under way.

Seven months after his dramatic landing in a flight suit on the USS Abraham Lincoln with its "Mission Accomplished" banner, Bush conceded about the Iraq visit, "I was the biggest skeptic of all."

Instead of a flight suit, Bush wore a standard Army jacket to meet with the troops, and acknowledged he thought "all along" it might be too risky and that he "had a lot of questions" about security.

<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20031128/ts_nm/bush_iraq_dc

[neuvocat]

1. I thought he went against his handlers

and took charge and went. Strange, isn't it?

[grilled onions]

2. HE was uneasy

Has he ever given a farthing of thought of how UNEASY those kids are over there putting their butts oin the line 24/7? HE had a lot of questions of security! How would he like to try and sleep with one eye open all the time?? What an idiot! :crazy:

[pinkpops]

3. I guess Bush was thinking

"Can't be selfish about this ...What of something happened to me?... Who would lead the country?"

[salin]

4. lol... they don't mention the.... "Hillary is going to Afghanistan for

Thanksgiving.... you really don't want that to dominate the news on Thanksgiving... followed by her going to Iraq.... Don't you want to spend Thanksgiving in Bagdad..."

[Cocoa]

5. this is just phony lore

like the British Airways thing, just to give more behind-the-scenes stuff for the TV people to chew over.

Bush probably didn't even know he was going to Iraq until they were half way there, they probably told him it was a beer run.

[salin]

6. do I detect a tad

of cynicism? *snicker* When the beer run took too long to explain.. they told him they were trying to find some of poppy's porkrinds to go along with the beer.