...right now. He's meeting with General Petraeus and other American officials there, along with Maliki and other Iraqi leaders. They're meeting at an airbase in Anbar province, a place that was very dangerous and insurgent-infested a year ago, but security is much improved now. Indeed that's why the administration chose it, as a symbol of the improvements we've seen in Iraq.
Bush administration officials claim the meeting was necessary prior to the September 15th deadline for deciding what will come next in Iraq--that the president needed to "look Petraeus in the eye" and get the real scoop on Iraq. Well, maybe--but I suspect there were a lot of politics behind this trip as well. It allows President Bush to show the American people that he's not afraid, or above, traveling to Iraq and being with his soldiers. And that he 's willing to do it on a holiday--in this case, on Labor Day. Remember the surprise visit he made at Thanksgiving 2003? That trip gave him a boost in the polls. The administration wouldn't mind seeing that happen again. Bush also surely wants to give the impression that no final decision has been made, that it is truly seeking input from Gen. Petraeus and the military as a whole.
Who knows? It might work. I give President Bush credit for going to Iraq. It's important for the commander-in-chief to go out to the field and see his troops.
