Pacific Views

Dubya shows his support for the troops.

You know that the prez is in some kind of political trouble whenever he decides to visit with the military. With polls showing his approval ratings in the toilet, it wasn't any surprise to us to see Dubya doing a hastily arranged Q&A with servicemembers currently in Iraq.

Dubya using US soldiers as props for his photo-op. [Photo: White House/Paul Morse]

The problem is that the prez's conversation with those soldiers on the big screen was about as real as anything on Hollywood's big screen: The whole exchange was just another one of Dubya's carefully scripted and choreographed photo-ops.

Not only were the soldiers carefully pre-selected to prevent any comments that might require the president to deviate from script, but check this out:

Before it began, a Pentagon official coached the troops, telling them the president planned to ask questions on three topics: The overall security in Iraq, how they were preparing for the vote on Saturday and how much progress had been made in the training of Iraqi troops.

Allison Barber, a Pentagon official, said Bush would ask them specifically, "In the last 10 months, what kind of progress have we seen?"

She asked who was prepared to answer the question. "Master Sgt. Lombardo," one said.

After Bush asked just that question, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo responded: "Over the past 10 months, the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces are improving ... They continue to develop and grow into a sustainable force."

The prez won't go to the funerals of the servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he has no problem with bringing in a bunch of them to use as the backdrop for another of his cynical attempts to prop up his sagging approval rating.

Via AP.

More: You'll find additional details of the staging in this more recent AP story.

Posted by Magpie at October 13, 2005 04:12 PM | Propaganda | Technorati links |