President George W. Bush paid a surprise visit to the troops in Baghdad in 2003, gave a tremendoues speech, and served dinner to the men and women on the front lines. The reception was overwhelming. In Obama’s seven years as President, he has never received an ovation like this from our fighting men and women.
Via Fox News:
Turkey with the commander in chief was a surprise Thanksgiving treat for American troops in Baghdad.
President Bush flew in under the cover of darkness on Thursday to dine with U.S. forces at a Baghdad International Airport mess hall. It was the first trip ever by an American president to Iraq — a mission tense with concern about his safety.
Bush’s surprise trip delighted troops and stunned the nation — including the president’s own parents, who had traveled to Crawford, Texas, expecting to spend the holiday with their son. Media outlets were reporting on Thursday morning that Bush would be at his ranch all day, only to be told the truth after the fact, when he was safely in the air and headed back home.
The president returned to U.S. soil early Friday, as his plane landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington shortly after midnight, before continuing on to Texas to complete the dramatic journey.
“I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere,” the President joked.
Bush being the man he is, didn’t stop at making a speech to the troops. No, he mingled with our fighting men and women and even joined the servers on the food line to dish out sweet potatoes and corn.
Bush said something during his Baghdad speech that’s quite ironic as we think of Obama’s policy of leading from behind on terrorism.
The terrorists he said, are “testing our will” and “hope we will run.”
But, he said, “we did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins.”
Obama however, retreated from Iraq, and continues to run from ISIS.
Comment: How good is it to remember what it was like to have a real commander-in-chief who loves the troops?
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We would not be fighting Daesh thugs and assassins now if it were not for the hubris and idiocy of George W. Bush. The leadership and officer corps of Daesh are the former leadership and officer corps of Iraq who were displaced by Bush in his ill-conceived "deBaathification". It was criticized as stupid when he did it. We now find that it was a deadly mistake, almost as deadly as the idiotic and prideful decision to invade Iraq in the first place. Bush sowed the wind, we are reaping the whirlwind.