Four Governors Visiting Troops in Iraq

[cal04]

Four U.S. governors were in the Middle East Tuesday as part of a Pentagon program to let state leaders see their guard members in action, officials said. The trip was kept secret for security reasons, said Jason Gibbs, spokesman for Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas.

Douglas was traveling in Kuwait and Iraq with fellow Republican Kenny Guinn of Nevada and Democrats Timothy Kaine of Virginia and Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, Gibbs said. Douglas left for Iraq Sunday night, a day after speaking at the funeral of Army Spc. Christopher S. Merchant, 32, who died March 1 after an attack on his vehicle in Ramadi. On Tuesday, the governor visited the Ramadi region, Gibbs said.

Kaine, meanwhile, met with Virginia Army and Air National Guard troops on Tuesday and visited Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Talking to reporters by phone from Kuwait, he said he will visit more troops in Afghanistan before returning home Friday.

Bredesen met Tuesday with Tennessee units serving in Al Taqaddam, followed by a briefing from Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5686049,00.html

[wakeme2008]

1. While Kaine was better than the Repug running for Va gov. I would bet

money he comes back with "Stay the Course",,, Iraq is going Wonderful..........

[cal04]

2. State Leaders Visit War Zones

(snip)
In previous trips, governors have traveled to Afghanistan to visit Guard troops there as well. "The governor very much wanted to see and honor the Virginia troops and guardsmen and women who are deployed there," Hall said.

In a voice mail message from Kaine to Hall late Monday night, the governor said: "We left on schedule Sunday night, with predictable military precision. . . . Things are going great. We're in Kuwait, and I had dinner with some Virginia troops, which was great."

He was invited by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a day after the Virginia governor returned from the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., at the beginning of February, Hall said. At that meeting, Kaine and all of the nation's other governors wrote a public letter to President Bush expressing their "opposition to force reductions in the Army and Air National Guard being considered by the Department of Defense."

Hall said Kaine accepted the invitation to go to Iraq on the condition that the General Assembly session had concluded. "We told them that the only caveat that we had a legislative session that had to take priority," Hall said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400398.html

[OKNancy]

3. kick

[NVMojo]

4. Guinn, other governors visit war-torn Iraq, speak to troops

Now Bush has the Repuke guvs pimping for him. Almost every Nevada troop I've spoken to doesn't want to go back and says we shouldn't be there. Do you think any of them are going to say anything else but what Rove wants to have them say to their guvs? Who is paying for these PR tours? We are. Just like we paid for Bush and Cheney to campaign for re-election.

March 15, 2006

Nevada's governor says people he's met feel their jobs important: Next stop Afghanistan

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn said the Nevada troops he met Tuesday in Iraq want the United States to stay there as long as necessary to bring peace to the struggling nation's citizens.

"Everyone I talked with is quick to tell you they really feel their job is important and they really want to finish it," said the governor in a telephone interview from Kuwait. "They feel they are doing the right thing. They have seen tremendous progress."

He said he did not detect any concern by the troops about the growing opposition to the war by Americans.

Guinn left Sunday with three other governors on a weeklong trip to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. The trip was not announced until Tuesday.

By the end of the summer, Guinn said all 50 state governors will have visited the war-torn region under a program arranged by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Mar-15-Wed-2006/news/6368638.html

[Barrett808]

5. Yeah, everything still proceeds according to the script

Except, of course, the insurgency.