Boy, Bushwatch pegged it. Bush visits troops "in blue business shirt"

[Brotherjohn]

http://www.bushwatch.net/e-mail.htm

That's how they headlined the following story from the NY Times about Bush visiting with troops departing for Iraq.
http://nytimes.com/2004/02/18/national/18BUSH.html

Everyone remembers the carrier photo-op and flight gear. Also, remember the Thanksgiving visit to Iraq? Bush was wearing a military jacket.

But with the AWOL flap, it's getting harder and harder for Bush to seriously paint himself as a "war president". He can't don military wear ever again without looking like a hypocrite.

ON EDIT:
I should have read the link and the article it linked to above. Bushwatch says "Bush Lack Of Firm Record Pretty Much Negates His Photo-Ops In Military Drag", and links to another NY Times column that pretty much makes that point (http://nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/worldspecial3/16CND-GORD.html?pagewanted=print&position=).

Either way, you won't see Bush strutting around as though he were a soldier anymore. The comparison of his own record with those he's sending off to die is just too obvious.

[NJCher]

1. yes, that is a very sad picture

The Moran is grinning away while these troops are being sent into a dangerous situation that could take their lives.

Maybe the contrast with Kerry has brought this ridiculous photo-ops and the stupid action figures to an end.


Cher

[Brotherjohn]

2. I noticed that he's the only one grinning in the picture.

I'd bet these troops are VERY unhappy with him about now. They, more than anyone else, are now asking "Why again did we invade Iraq?"

And in the story itself, Bush has the gall to again fall back on the assertion that "Iraq is the central front in the war on terror"... as though it doesn't even occur to him that it is we who have turned it into that.

And it's still an arguable assertion, since most of the "fighters" are turning out not to be "foreign" after all. This is neatly summed up in the story "U.S. Sees Al Qaeda Everywhere" (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0217-02.htm).

It is obvious that the U.S. is trying to make new bogeyman out of Ansar al Islam and its alleged leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and trying to render that organization and Al Qaeda one and the same to justify the war after the fact. He's trying the same trick with al-Zarqawi and Bin Laden as he tried with Hussein and Bin Laden. It won't work. We know too much.

[snippy]

7. The troops should pay attention to what Bush said at the end of his speech

We're a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We believe that freedom is the right of every single person in the world. By the unselfish dedication of Americans in uniform, people in our own country and in lands far away, people can live in freedom and know the peace that freedom brings.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040217-5.html

I have an old copy of the Constitution and it doesn't include the part about the mission of the United States being to bring freedom to everyone on earth. This is an admirable goal, but I do not think most people, including those in the military, want to spend American lives and money on it.

[diamond14]

3. photo....

bush*: "I will never relent....and NEITHER WILL YOU"

[peekaloo]

4. isn't that the "manly" look Tweety so adores

work shirt, sleeves rolled up, a man getting down to bidness!

What a desperate smile on his face...."ya love me don'cha boys".

[brook]

6. I saw...

some footage last night that showed * from the side and back - looked to me like he had some Kevlar under his blue *bidness* shirt. Anyone else notice the slightly padded look - or was it my imagination?

[Poiuyt]

5. He was a lousy businessman, too.

I think wearing a clown suit would be appropriate.

[ignatius]

8. Ahh, too bad. I wanted to see that sock he

put in his crouch fall out his pant leg..

[Cat Atomic]

9. Well, I guess we'll never see him uniform again. At least not until

he decides what the new El Presidente uniform should look like.