Wowie

I saw this flipping channels between FB games: President Travels to Baghdad and Addresses Soldiers at Airport. At first I thought they were showing file footage until I digested it all.

In a stunning mission conducted under enormous secrecy, President Bush flew into Baghdad today aboard Air Force One to share Thanksgiving dinner with United States officials and several hundred astonished American troops.

His trip--the first ever to Iraq by an American president--had been kept a matter of absolute secrecy by the White House, which had said that Mr. Bush was to spend the holiday weekend at his ranch outside Crawford, Tex.

No doubt a huge morale boost for the troops he visited. And quite a surprise all the way 'round.

He told the troops that the United States would not back down in the face of stern resistance in Iraq.

The trip also carried a powerful public relations message, coming on a day when millions of Americans traditionally are at home before their televisions to watch parades or football games.

The presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, speaking on CNN, called the trip "a perfectly executed plan" that would be "one of the major moments in his biography." It would have provided "an incredible thrill" for the Americans, he said.

And no joke:

The trip underscored the extraordinary ability of this administration to keep even the most dramatic of secrets.