NYTimes (01.12.07):
“President Bush came to this Georgia military base looking for a friendly audience to sell his new Iraq strategy. But his lunchtime talk received a restrained response from soldiers who clapped politely but showed little of the wild enthusiasm that they ordinarily shower on the commander in chief.
Under the new plan, more than 20,000 additional troops will be sent to Iraq, some from Fort Benning who learned Thursday that they would go earlier than expected.”
Some of the folks down there have already done two tours in Iraq. On Thursday, some found out that in March, they’d get to go back again, “about two months ahead of schedule, as a result of the president’s plan.”
Yippee.
How did the troops feel about it? “It was difficult to know how the soldiers felt about returning to the war zone, or the president’s new Iraq plan. Though Mr. Bush’s lunch was open to the press, the base commander, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, would not let the troops in attendance talk to reporters. His spokeswoman said the commander wanted ‘the focus to be on the president.’”
And because they would’ve told the reporters the whole thing’s a massive clusterfuck.
