Bush delivers a turkey

It is worth remembering that while the president enjoys being
photographed with soldiers he passed on an opportunity to become a
soldier himself, ducking out to the National Guard -- and then going
AWOL from the guard.
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http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Bush delivers a turkey

In what could be generously interpreted as a tribute to the late, great
Bob Hope, President Bush visited the troops in Baghdad on Thanksgiving
Day. The president was not accompanied by Playboy bunnies, nor did he
make Bing Crosby jokes, but the trip did lend itself to photo
opportunities, as did Mr. Hope's appearances abroad. For President Bush,
who is most happy in campaign mode, it always comes down to photo
opportunities.

On May 1, the president donned a flyboy costume and appeared aboard an
aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner, producing video
footage the Republican Party hoped to use in the 2004 election campaign.
Unhappily, the exposure of the administration's ill-conceived invasion
plan and the mounting death toll of American soldiers meant that the
carrier footage ended up in a John Kerry campaign ad long before it
could be used by the president. The president's cameo appearance in
Baghdad, with the president costumed this time in an Army jacket, may
generate more successful campaign footage, or at least White House
political director Karl Rove hopes it will.

To President Bush, America's soldiers are nothing more than props for
his never-ending campaign. They were props on May 1 and they were props
on Thanksgiving Day. An appearance at the funeral of one of the soldiers
who has died in a war that has increased the terrorist threat against
America, not diminished it, would be far more meaningful. So would an
appearance to greet the coffins coming back from Iraq, ending an
unprecedented policy forbidding the media from filming the arrival of
America's war dead. Of course, footage like that would not make for
jolly White House political propaganda.

It is worth remembering that while the president enjoys being
photographed with soldiers he passed on an opportunity to become a
soldier himself, ducking out to the National Guard -- and then going
AWOL from the guard. If he is now truly concerned about the welfare of
America's soldiers he will devote his time to persuading foreign nations
to join the cause in Iraq while Iraqis labors to set up their own
government. That would be of more help than a brief campaign appearance.

The May 1 campaign appearance produced the Flight-jacket George doll,
and perhaps the Thanksgiving photo op will give us Army-jacketed George
delivering a plate of turkey. The turkey can symbolize his Iraq policy.
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