Bush visit to Iraq is more proof al Qaeda is losing

Washington Post:

President Bush arrived in Baghdad today for a face-to-face meeting with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki -- an effort, the White House said, to get a clear sense of the premier's priorities and how the U.S. government could help his government succeed.

The White House originally had said Bush was scheduled to be at Camp David and to hold a video-conference with Maliki this morning. Instead, without telling the Iraqi government or all but his closest advisers, the president slipped out of Washington last night and made the 11-hour trip to Baghdad International Airport, landing at 4:08 p.m. Baghdad time (8:08 a.m. EDT).

Bush then traveled by helicopter to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the new prime minister was waiting with one of his aides in the Republican Palace, a 1950s-era building that is now part of the U.S. Embassy compound.

"Good to see you," Maliki said to the president, who was escorted by a retinue of aides, including U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad and the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr.

"Thanks for having me," Bush replied, before disappearing with Maliki into one of the offices. Maliki learned of Bush's visit only after his Nighthawk helicopter had landed in the Green Zone following a six-minute ride from the airport, part of the extraordinary security measures associated with the trip.

...

If al Qaeda was winning as critics claim then bin Laden and Zawahiri would be flying into Baghdad instead of hiding in a cave in the mountains. Bush's trip is more potent than 10 blustery videos by the cave dwellers. Why Democrats want to lose a war we are winning has more to do with their internal politics than the real world. The Democrats and the enemy share a fear that success in Iraq and elsewhere in the global war on terror could mean greater use of force in the future by the US. That is a scary thought for both.

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