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Bush Makes Secret Thanksgiving Visit to Iraq
Thu November 27, 2003 01:52 PM ET
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By Steve Holland
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush secretly traveled to Baghdad and paid a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to U.S. troops on Thursday in a bid to boost the morale of forces in Iraq amid mounting casualties.
In an elaborate plan to ensure his security in the tense Iraqi capital, Bush slipped away from his Texas ranch on Wednesday night, arrived in Iraq on Thursday and spent 2-1/2 hours with the troops before flying back to the United States.
"I bring a message on behalf of America: We thank you for your service, we are proud of you and America stands solidly behind you," an emotional Bush told about 600 soldiers, who were stunned to see the president emerge in a military mess hall at the heavily fortified Baghdad International Airport.
To make the clandestine trip, Bush scrapped plans to eat a traditional turkey dinner with his wife and family. He was the first U.S. president to visit Iraq, which is perilous more than six months after the government of Saddam Hussein was toppled.
With the U.S. economy perking up, Iraq is emerging as perhaps the greatest threat to Bush's re-election in 2004 and the precarious security situation on the ground continues to claim the lives of American soldiers.
U.S. efforts to return sovereignty to Iraqis more quickly have become snarled and the international community, much of which opposed the U.S.-led invasion, is pressing for a greater role.
Without hinting of the huge surprise to come, Iraq's U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer told soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne he was supposed to read the president's Thanksgiving address to them but would defer to the most senior person on the premises.
THUNDEROUS CHEERING
At that point, Bush emerged wearing a military jacket and loud, thunderous cheering began.
"I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere," Bush said. "Thanks for inviting me to dinner."
Bush spoke in the face of a deadly guerrilla insurgency in which more than 180 U.S. soldiers have died since he declared major combat operations over in Iraq with a controversial visit to an aircraft carrier in May.
Last month, Iraqi insurgents fired a barrage of rockets at a hotel in Baghdad where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying and earlier this month, guerrillas fired a missile that struck a cargo plane at Baghdad airport forcing it to make an emergency landing.
"You are engaged in a difficult mission," he said. "Those who attack our coalition forces and kill innocent Iraqis are testing our will. They hope we will run."
"We did not charge hundreds of miles through the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins," he said to a standing ovation.
"We will prevail. We will win because our cause is just. We will win because we will stay on the offensive."
Afterward Bush shook hands with soldiers and took a place in the chow line, serving plates of food.
Bush also met with four members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the U.S.-appointed group that has struggled to return normal life to Iraqis and is drawing up plans for free elections and a constitution.
Bush stayed at Baghdad airport for 2-1/2 hours before flying back to Washington and then on to Texas.
SECRECY, SAFETY CONCERNS
From start to finish, Bush's trip took about 30 hours, 27 of them in the air. With him were a handful of aides, U.S. Secret Service agents and reporters, all sworn to secrecy.
Aides said Bush made the decision to go five or six weeks ago on a trip to Asia and only informed Vice President Dick Cheney, White House chief of staff Andrew Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in a video conference call on Wednesday.
It was so secret that Bush's parents, former President George Bush and Barbara Bush were not told. Bush only told his wife hours before leaving and his daughters, Barbara and Jenna, just before departing.
Bush was smuggled off his Crawford, Texas, ranch in an unmarked vehicle without his usual motorcade for a 45-minute drive to Texas State Technical College airport in nearby Waco.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett would not say how Bush was whisked off the ranch. "If you were outside the ranch waiting for the president, you would not have known that the president just left," he said.
At the Texas airport, Bush departed aboard his presidential 747 aircraft, Air Force One. The cover story was the plane was being taken to Washington for maintenance. He entered the rear of the plane. The aircraft's lights were dark as it flew.
Upon landing at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, the plane was rolled into a giant, heavily guarded hangar where an identical plane awaited. Bush switched to the second jet for the Baghdad flight.
