President George Bush’s unannounced visit to Baghdad was designed to be a dramatic demonstration of his support for Iraq’s new multiparty government. The president had committed to hunkering down with his military and political advisers for two days of brainstorming at Camp David where the plan was for video-conferencing with Premier Nuri Al-Maliki and senior members of his administration. No doubt against the advice of his personal security chiefs, Bush decided to do a great deal better than this and personally go to meet Maliki and his government.
On paper it probably struck the president as being a heavy-impact gesture to boost the new Iraqi administration, along with the sagging morale of many US military units. Coming on top of the killing last week of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Bush no doubt imagined that he would win nothing but praise for his triumphant dash in and out of Baghdad.
In the event Iraqis are less than impressed by the US leader’s antics and many feel strongly what they interpret as an insult to Prime Minister Maliki — who was only told about Bush’s arrival five minutes before he landed. Maliki’s commitment to peace and his opposition to the insurgency is well-known — not least to the Americans — but no one saw fit to give the Iraqi premier a genuine advance warning about his powerful guest. Maybe US officials believed that however safe it might be to tell Maliki about the Bush trip, there might be others, perhaps close to him, who could not be trusted with the secret.
If the US military remains the insurgents’ main target, then a US president helicoptering into the Green Zone at the center of Baghdad would represent the mother of all targets. Indeed it is surely true that even among Americans in Baghdad, only a handful knew that a VIP guest was arriving — and of that number, only perhaps one or two actually knew the identity of the VIP.
The fact is that this whole incident epitomizes the way in which Washington has insisted purblindly on its own priorities while refusing to recognize any of the subtle cultural differences of a country in which it has interfered so calamitously. To have appeared suddenly in the night at the side of an Arab leader was an insult, not a triumph. It might have been better if the president had stayed put in Camp David as planned and arrived in Baghdad via a video link.
But some good might just come out of the stunt. Despite the pictures of an inanely grinning president on the flight deck of Air Force One as it approached Baghdad Airport, perhaps Bush did get some inkling of the fear and danger in which all Iraqis live their lives, hour by hour, day by day, week by week. No Iraqi, however great or small, is immune from the terror of the bomber, the assassin or the death squads. Unlike the president and all his men, they do not have the option of flying off to safety after a few nervous hours. Perhaps this occurred to the president. But perhaps not.
