All we get from Iraq is ghastly news, and for weeks the Bush administration has
said that the media does not emphasize the positive. The Bushies have complained
that the press reports a lot on the bombings, the deaths and the protests, but
doesn't report on how happy many people are. Attacks on Americans are declining,
the White House claims (which belies those media reports), and the security
situation gets steadily under control. It's only a few rogue guerrillas anyway—no
more than 5,000, says Gen. John P. Abizaid, the senior American commander in the
Middle East, as opposed the 50,000 figure leaked in a CIA report a few weeks ago.
Whatever the number, it's nothing much to worry about, as we'll be handing
everything over to the Iraqis in a matter of months anyway. All will then be just fine,
as a new democracy born.
If that's the case, why did the president fly into Iraq under cover of night in a
cloak-and-dagger escapade that had George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice
actually wearing disguises at one point? And why is Baghdad safe enough for a
former first lady, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to announce her trip there two months
prior and then, accompanied by secret service, spend more than 10 hours meeting
with Iraqi leaders and mingling with citizens, but not safe enough for the president to
make a quick tour of the city?
Iraq is either a) so totally in chaos that the president couldn't make his trip public the
way that, say, Lyndon Johnson announced his trip to Vietnam during the height of
the bloody and dangerous war there or; b) though Baghdad is very unstable, with a
literal army of security accompanying him, it's safe enough for Bush to have
announced the trip or at least venture out in the city more, but the Bushies are using
the 'security' issue as a way to once again orchestrate a photo-op and control
media coverage.
Either way, it smells as skanky as everything else that Karl Rove touches. The White
House denied the trip was politically motivated, but, according to the Associated
Press, Rice 'stopped short of saying that political adviser Karl Rove did not know
about the trip.'
It's nice that Bush gave some beleaguered troops in Iraq a much-needed lift. It's
what we'd want any president to do. It's also an issue this president has been
under fire about in recent weeks, not having gone to one memorial service or funeral
of dead soldiers or bringing any media attention to the more than 2,000 wounded
servicemen and women. Even if Bush made this visit to blunt that criticism—and
take some bite out of his now pathetic 'Mission Accomplished' aircraft carrier
landing—it was a positive gesture.
But those who've claimed this was a brave action are completely deluding
themselves. If anyone was brave it was Hillary Clinton—who voted for the war
resolution, let's not forget—and Sen. Jack Reed, allowing their itineraries to be
known and traveling the streets of Baghdad. Lying to the vast majority of the media
and the public about your whereabouts, not telling your own parents (yes, George
Sr. and Barbara were apparently in the dark) and then flying in, with the lights out, for
a two-hour airport stopover doesn't strike me as gutsy. Nor does it prove that Iraq is
safe—as some TV pundits actually were saying Bush's trip would telegraph to the
American people—particularly since a U.S. soldier was killed in Mosul within hours
of Bush's visit.
Nobody, least of all fearful Democrats, wants to even remotely appear as if he or
she doesn't support the troops, but it's certainly not wrong to point to Bush's political
motivations here. If this administration had a track record of reaching out to people
in need, with the president taking political as well as physical risks, his motivations
would be less glaring. Unlike Bush, Bill Clinton visited the victims of just about every
disaster imaginable, from hurricanes to forest fires. Some on the right used to claim
it was all political, but because Clinton always did it, from the beginning of his
presidency until the end—and connected with people on a personal level wherever
he went—his defenders could claim this was just his personality.
Bush, on the other hand, not only has often stayed away from visiting disaster
scenes, but his aides have often claimed that, unlike Clinton, it's because he didn't
want to exploit them for political purposes. When I wrote a column about Cher's visit
to the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda—a few miles from Bush's
home—and her anger at Bush and Cheney for not bringing media attention to the
many limbless soldiers in the hospital, angry Bush supporters wrote in. Some
claimed Bush had quietly met with the soldiers, giving some of them Purple Hearts,
but that, unlike some other president, he didn't want to bring cameras to the event to
exploit the issue.
If that's true, then why didn't Bush leave the reporters behind when he flew into
Baghdad? And why were only a select few members of the press chosen? The fact
that Fox News was the only network invited—and that its producers put the entire
staff on full alert—while those communists at CNN were sent on a wild turkey
chase, led to believe the action (or non-action) was happening down in Crawford,
tells you about the White House's priorities and how it manages the news.
The reporters who were chosen were told not to tell anyone, including their families
and friends, or their employers (unless they saw them in person). They were thereby
colluding with the White House, and in most instances even lying to their own
employers (except for Fox News' Jim Angle, who, curiously, broke the rule and did
tell his producer so the network could get everyone into play).
Meanwhile, the Bush Baghdad airport drop-in did the trick of blunting Hillary
Clinton's full-fledged visit, which would have been the only front-page news that day.
Was that part of the Rovian plan too?
'A source familiar with the planning of her visit said the administration was informed
in late September that she would go,' the Associated Press reported about
Clinton's visit. It was only a few weeks later, in mid-October, that the White House
began planning Bush's top-secret trip.
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Michelangelo Signorile hosts a daily satellite radio program on Sirius OutQ, 149.He
can be reached at www.signorile.com .
