Turkey with the troops

Before Americans could deck the halls with pumpkins, President Bush began planning a lavish Thanksgiving dinner party gala. For about five weeks, Bush's closest consortium kept the banquet in Baghdad hush-hush as they arranged extensive measures to smuggle the president out of the country. \nWith more than 70 U.S. soldier casualties this November, the visit to Iraq came at the end of one of the deadliest months since May's "Mission Accomplished" celebration. In the tradition of Thanksgiving, the president broke bread to smooth tensions among the people. \nThe Thanksgiving dinner with troops was a huge success. Suddenly, the president with declining popularity reached martyr status for sacrificing the First Lady's green bean casserole to eat with soldiers. \nWhen some skeptics raised eyebrows about the sincerity of his trip, Bush said in a Reuters article Friday, "I think the American people appreciate me going to express my sympathies to these kids."\nUndoubtedly, it was a wise political move to visit Iraq for the incumbent president who is approaching election time. But calling this single photo opportunity proof of a president as sweet as pumpkin pie is just unwarranted. \nPerhaps instead of spending the entire visit mingling with Americans at one U.S. base, Bush could have used the time to actually do something productive as well. \n"He visited Iraq for the sake of the Americans, not the Iraqis. He didn't come to see how we are doing," said Muzher Abd Hanush, an Iraqi citizen, in an Associated Press article released Saturday. "To come, say hello and leave -- what good does that do?" \nDespite the fact that Bush ate and excused himself from the table without speaking to any local civilians, his morale-boosting speech to the troops was laced with the refrain of the song his administration has been singing throughout this epic war. \n"We did not charge hundreds of miles … and liberate 25 million people only to retreat," he said, according to the Associated Press, a theme repeated in all his comments on the current situation in Iraq.\nAt this point the "applause" signs flashed, and the American troops leapt to their feet in support of the "compassionate" president who has a deep love for Iraqi people and their quest for freedom yet no desire to meet with them. \nWith an improving economy, the only thing holding this ever-so-lovable president back from reelection is the sloppy way he has handled the war on terrorism since he began using the name Osama bin Laden interchangeably with Saddam Hussein. \nThough democratic presidential opponents were hesitant to criticize the trip for its blatant public relations objective, it remains an example of this administration's way of bullying opposition. To judge the president's actions is considered un-American. Everyone is familiar by now with Bush's gutsy words to the world: You're either with us or against us. Except, the crime isn't really opposition to "us," but actually any opposition to him.\n Let not the American people forget this is the same president who made that teeny, tiny mistake about the uranium ties between Iraq and Niger in his State of the Union address or unjustifiably misled the people that Iraq is the world's fiery kitchen, cooking up mass batches of terrorists. \nThis is manipulation. Bush skips through a mess hall on an emotional holiday, emanating humility and appreciation and is now labeled a compassionate leader. The president battered this country with poor foreign policy; the absolute least he could do was visit it in the hospital.