Is this a trend? When things look like they’re heading south, arrange a secret trip to Iraq then surprise everyone with a press release when you arrive?
Remember this from Thanksgiving, when Bush secretly visited Iraq? This morning, embattled Donald Rumsfeld has done the same.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in Iraq Thursday afternoon in a surprise visit to reach out to U.S. soldiers and to meet privately with his top generals in the field.
Rumsfeld said the whirlwind trip is not intended to quell Iraqi concerns about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Baghdad, though he said he plans to speak to members of the Coalition Provisional Authority as well as those in charge of U.S. detainee operations in Iraq to hear their thoughts on the situation.
“We’re not on an inspection tour,” Rumsfeld told reporters Wednesday afternoon aboard an Air Force E-4B jet on his way to Kuwait, where he switched planes before heading to Baghdad. “If anyone thinks I’m there to throw water on a fire, they’re wrong.”
Um… is it just me, or do you think he SHOULD be on an inspection tour? I think there’s a lot that needs inspecting over there.
