BAGHDA/WASHINGTON — Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad on Wednesday, June 14, to protest uninvited US President George Bush, as leading US dailies took issue with the visit dismissing it as a publicity stunt.
"Iraq is for Iraqis" and "No, to the occupation," chanted the protestors who marched through the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
They raised Iraqi flags and pictures of young Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, demanding the withdrawal of US-led occupation forces.
"This visit is a brazen violation of Iraq's sovereignty," Abdel Hadi Al-Daraji, a senior aide to the Shiite leader, told the Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel.
"He was not invited even the government did not know about the visit."
Bush arrived in Baghdad Tuesday, June 13, on a surprise visit kept secret even from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Expecting a planned teleconference with Bush and top White House officials Maliki and his senior cabinet officials were called to the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.
Only after Bush had landed by helicopter in the Green Zone did they find out the meeting with the US leader would be in person.
Al-Sadr led two armed uprisings against US-led occupation forces in 2004 and is a vocal critic of the US occupation forces.
Publicity Stunt
Bush's visit was seen as a publicity stunt for a short-term lift in the domestic opinion polls at election time. (Reuters)
The visit, Bush's second since his troops invaded the country in 2003, drew criticism from leading US newspapers Wednesday.
The USA Today said Bush's "public relations offensive" was designed to shore up support for sagging public support for the Iraqi war.
"The circumstances of the trip itself illustrated that reality is not so simple ... Security remains so dicey that Bush was in and out of Baghdad in hours," noted the national daily.
It asserted that US troops should be brought home as soon as possible "not left to die to save face, as happened during the long Vietnam drawdown."
In its editorial, New York Times said Bush flew to Iraq "to make much of two modest pieces of encouraging news - the belated confirmation of the last three members of the Iraqi cabinet and the death of Iraq's top terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
The visit came a week after Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike, seen by analysts, Democrats and ordinary Americans as another propaganda victory for Bush.
The Times said if Americans wondered whether the trip was a "presidential publicity stunt ... (or) a true turning point in this ever-lengthening war," Bush's adviser Karl Rove provided the answer.
"Democrats could never have summoned the will to kill Mr. Zarqawi," Rove said in a speech in New Hampshire providing "campaign talking points" to Republicans for the November legislative elections.
The Times expressed doubts about Maliki's cabinet and his vast military operative to secure Baghdad -- "that may look good on paper, but so did the 'Mission Accomplished' banner" unfurled at the end of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and urged the White House to be more serious in its efforts.
"After too many photo-ops aimed at giving Mr. Bush and his fellow Republicans a short-term lift in the domestic opinion polls at election time, Americans hunger more than ever for a realistic game plan for Iraq and some real progress," said the daily.
Bush has seen his standing in public opinion polls plummet to the lowest level for a US president in a generation, with three in five Americans believing the March 2003 invasion was a mistake.
US public unease with the war is growing in a congressional election year and Bush faces calls to set a timetable for withdrawal of some 130,000 US troops.
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