Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

This is excellent news! You know that the usual Secret Service advance team was almost invisible and unable to set up good security. You also know that the troops are ALL on full alert now! It is good to see the troops all work to make sure that any remaining terrorists get smashed flat. Not that they were slacking before, but now they have national honor to defend as well.

Just remember guys: Tango Down is like music to my ears! Play it often!

Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq: "President Bush and his national security team made a first-hand assessment of the war in Iraq and prospects for political reconciliation Monday as a showdown nears with Congress over the U.S. troop buildup.

The president secretly flew 11 hours to this air base in a remote part of Anbar province, bypassing Baghdad in a symbolic expression of impatience with political paralysis in the nation's capital. The gesture underscored the U.S. belief that the spark for progress may come at the local level.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived ahead of Bush and conferred with senior U.S. officials, including Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, before a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, and other top Iraqi officials from Baghdad.

To a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration's war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein. "