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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
BIAP
by Rich Galen
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I know a little sump'n about traveling around Iraq. I know a LOT about travel from the Green Zone to the airport and back.

President Barack Obama showed up in Baghdad on his way home from his European tour. According to reports, he was supposed to helicopter from the Air Port …

The President was supposed to move by helicopter from BIAP to the Green Zone but in the best of circumstances helicopter travel is unreliable and in a place like Iraq - where the sand is really dust and the dust is really refined talcum powder - helicopter travel is a crapshoot.

Newsweek Magazine posted a piece by Bobby Ghosh which complained that the secret trip to Iraq was "straight out of the Bush playbook." Ghosh wrote that "Obama's main contribution to Iraq has been to criticize the war while on the campaign trail, and then to begin drawing down the U.S. troop presence as soon as he became President."

Nevertheless the Commander-in-Chief visits the troops and it's a good day for the troops.

The NY Times (which still maintains a bureau in Baghdad) reported that the President told a gathering of troops at what is known as "Camp Victory" which is within the same large protected area as BIAP:

"You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement and for that you have the thanks of the American people."

I wonder why his writers didn't have him say, "You have my thanks and the thanks of the American people?" Maybe the writers did have him saying that, but … Continued...
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About The Author

Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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Reply # 1
Date: Apr 9, 2009 - 10:11 PM EST
Helicopters in Iraq
Not to sound like one of Ann Coulter's Liberal Victims, but I would like to remind the author and readers that despite the accuracy of the comments about the talcum dust in Iraq. The military's rotary wing crews (especially the maintainers) have pulled off a feat of will by keeping the fleet flying. As a former Commander of an Air Cavalry Troop operating out of BIAP (damn right I am biased), I never had an aircraft not make take-off due to dust, unless it was sandstorm. Aviation units are coming back having routinely flown 25,000+ hours in a year. At home station most units fly 5,000-8,000 hours in a year.

As for wearing a suit in Iraq...you have got to be kidding me! 115 is cool day...we routinely saw temps that would reach 125 out on the flight line.

Maybe POTUS wanted to show respect to troops be being well-dressed, if so it was a faux-pax, a unit baseball cap from somewhere and shirt-sleeves would have struck a much better chord.

But at least made the effort to support the troops.
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Reply # 2
Date: Apr 9, 2009 - 9:59 PM EST
Audi10
I'm pretty sure Ur 100% correct in what happens *after the Boomers*..My Dear Mother lived to see 97..That's 25 More for me..I'm not sure it's all that much to look forward to?? CHEERS
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