So George Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq this week to check up on things. Specifically he visited Anbar province in the west, which is symbolically significant because it was a Sunni stronghold for Saddam Hussein. I think it's pretty noble of the president to finally visit Iraq, though I also think the trip's real purpose is to lull us into a sense of complacency, make us think things are going better than they are. After all, the public will say, if our own president isn't afraid to go to Iraq, then surely it must be safe there!
Unfortunately for Iraqis going about their everyday lives, there is no security, no safe zone. Our president--and our troops--get to come home. We were supposed to bring the Iraqis freedom, but in my eyes we have only succeeded in making them prisoners to fear.
Iraq is so unstable, and apparently the Maliki government will become "more precarious" in the future. We deposed a dictator, yes, but what did we really give the Iraqi people? What have we really done to protect ourselves (at the cost of $3 billion a week--yes, that's $3,000,000,000)? Bush is there to boost morale, or so he hopes. I wonder what the people who live in Anbar think when they see him.
Personally, I don't think the President's trip is going to be an inspiration to anyone or give the Iraqi people reassurance that everything is all right. It isn't, and I am afraid to ponder when it will be.
Read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6976915.stm
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It amazes me how we drone on about a visit from the President "boosting" the spirits, the morale, the good will, etc, etc, etc. Do we really believe that all it takes to make these people that are living in the daily hell feel better is for a man most view as being at least partially responsible for the hell they've had to endure to show up, shake hands and fly home to his nice cozy bed safe from worry that crossing the street will end in him being maimed for life? Seems unlikely to me. It's going to take a lot more than the visit of a President in order to make people think that things can be okay again. They have seen too much, lived through much, and walked through the destruction that "too much" has left for a quickie trip from Bush to give hope or a sense of security. He's not doing it for the people on the ground. He's doing it for the idiots back home that, like you said, think a quick trip to Iraq by the President must assuredly mean that things are getting better.
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Fallon
"It is never too late to give up your prejudices." Henry David Thoreau
"In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've heard the other side." Euripides
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