The last few days it seems all we have heard about is Bush’s big meeting at Camp David. Yesterday the New York Times put a little perspective on what is going on there.
President Bush gathered top aides at Camp David here on Monday to calibrate the best way forward in Iraq during what the administration described as a critical juncture, following the death last week of the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq and the final formation of a unity government there.
The meeting was as much a media event as it was a high-level strategy session, devised to send a message that this is “an important break point for the Iraqi people and for our mission in Iraq from the standpoint of the American people,” in the words of the White House counselor, Dan Bartlett.
It came as Republicans began a new effort to use last week’s events to turn the war to their political advantage after months of anxiety, and to sharpen attacks against Democrats. On Monday night, the president’s top political strategist, Karl Rove, told supporters in New Hampshire that if the Democrats had their way, Iraq would fall to terrorists and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would not have been killed.
We are dealing with the most partisan President in recent history. Of course this is strictly a political play and you can not have that without having a media event. The funny part is that the death of Zarqawi has not helped the public opinion and people realize that his death really means little in the grand scheme of things. Here is the latest from CBS News:
The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has done little to improve views of how things are going for the U.S. in Iraq or boost President Bush’s approval ratings, a CBS News poll finds.
Mr. Bush has been cautious in his response to Zarqawi’s killing by U.S. troops this week, calling it “a major blow to al Qaeda” but warning that it won’t end the war “and it’s certainly not going to end the violence.”
For once I have to agree with Bush. The right wing pundits, talk show hosts and even some politicians would lead us to believe this is the major victory. The problem is that Zarqawi was never what the war was about. If that were the case then Saddam would have meant things would have changed. Oh wait – they did change after we captured Saddam. They got alot worse.
As for Bush’s approval rating in this poll. Well he did get that bounce the right was predicting. Unfortunately for them that bounce was in the opposite direction. The CBS poll has Bush’s approval at 33%, down from 35%.
So with all this going on and people realizing Iraq is still a mess, how else can Bush help his poor public image, sagging support for the war and troubled political party out? Suprise Suprise:
President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday to meet newly named Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and discuss the next steps in the troubled three-year-old war.
It was a dramatic move by Bush, traveling to violence-rattled Baghdad less than a week after the death of terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a bombing attack. The president was expected to be in Baghdad a little more than five hours.
The trip was known only to a handful of aides and a small number of reporters sworn to secrecy because of obvious security threats for Bush and members of his entourage.
There were reports that Bush was meeting with al-Maliki this week but those reports had it as al-Maliki coming here, not Bush going there. I guess things got changed at the last minute because Bush figured this would be a better political move. Now the right has something else to talk about; “Look at Bush – he can go to Iraq and nothing happen. The country is safe now.”. I can hear it already.
Of course this “big news” of Bush going to Iraq helps to overshadow something else interesting in the news. Think of how we are always told “Baghdad is not as bad as people make it out to be”. Well that claim just got a little more erroneous:
Under an ambitious plan to bolster security in Baghdad, some 75,000 Iraqi and multinational forces will be deployed in the capital beginning Wednesday, a top Iraqi police official said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised to show “no mercy” to terrorists and said the security plan would include a curfew and ban on weapons.
Facing unrelenting violence following the death of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last week, al-Maliki said the crackdown in Baghdad “will provide security and confront the terrorism and … enable Iraqis to live in peace in Baghdad.”
“The raids during this plan will be very tough … because there will be no mercy toward those who show no mercy to our people,” he said in a news release distributed Tuesday.
75,000 troops in Baghdad alone. That is a huge number. While this includes Iraqi troops, you can be certain a majority are going to be American troops. They said the “multinational forces” are included, but what multinational forces? Most of our “coalition” has pulled out our reduced troop levels down to damn near nothing. We are nearing the point of going this alone.
Now the next big question. Have the people in Iraq heard the news that Bush wants to keep 50,000 troops there for years to come? Perhaps that is what he is discussing on his trip today and if that word gets out in Iraq, the insurgents will get a flood of new recruits. I guarantee that one.