CAIRO,
November 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Almost all
European papers Friday, November 28, branded - more or less - U.S.
President George Bush’s whirlwind visit to Iraq as “a pre-election
public relations stunt”.
"Bush
becomes the first U.S. President to visit Iraq in order to provide the
television pictures required by his re-election campaign," ran
the front-page headline in the London daily Independent.
“Bush
does not attend the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, but has
dinner in Baghdad with those who dream of coming home alive,”
reported the Spanish daily Vanguardia.
A
Gallup opinion poll this month showed that 54 percent of Americans
disapproved of the way the post-invasion situation was being handled,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Hillary
Rodham Clinton, Bush’s undeclared Democratic opponent, was also on
her way to Baghdad from Afghanistan, amid yelling news that it would
run strongly for Presidency.
More
than 430 U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq, 184 of them since that
date, and observers said the death toll could be much larger since
Washington was keen to keep secret the real numbers.
Shortly
after the end of Bush’s visit, a U.S. soldier from the 101st
Airborne Division was killed when four mortar shells were fired at the
division's base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Bush’s
presence in the Iraqi capital was not even released until Air Force
One was safely back in the air.
He
received no hero's welcome from jubilant Iraqis, no victory speech to
adoring crowds on the streets.
The
U.S. commander-in-chief, didn't even leave the heavily-guarded U.S.
military base at Baghdad airport in his lightning stopover.
Election
Campaign
Arabic
newspapers were also skeptical, with the wide-circulation Al-Hayat
running a frontline reading "Bush 'infiltrated' Baghdad for two
hours".
In
Beirut, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, owned by Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafiq Hariri, announced that "Bush’s secret visit to
Baghdad opens presidential election season”.
Al-Liwaa
newspaper said Thursday night's trip was designed to "ease the
widespread frustration among the ranks of the American armed forces
occupying Iraq and fighting against the Iraqis”.
It
also came “in response to the angry demonstration in London”
during Bush’s visit to the British capital last week.
 |
|
"Obviously, Iraq is still a dangerous place, and that's no secret to anyone,” Rice
|
A
front-page editorial in Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper
compared Bush to Roman emperor Julius Caesar, but said the US
president could not repeat the phrase: "I came, I saw, I
conquered”.
Bush’s
national security adviser admitted the dangers the trip was attended
with, "Obviously,
Iraq is still a dangerous place, and that's no secret to anyone,”
she said, just hours after returning with Bush from the surprise
Thanksgiving holiday.
She
said the visit was designed to boost eroding U.S. troop morale and let
Iraqis know that the United States will stay until the war-ravaged
country is stable and on the road to democracy and prosperity.
A
few days earlier, Bush also faced "unprecedented" security
and huge anti-war protests planned during his trip to London.
The
White House demanded absolute secrecy from reporters traveling with
Bush until his Air Force One plane had left the Iraqi capital after
just two and a half hours, and the president never left the heavily
guarded airport there.
