Was the flying visit to Baghdad by US President George W. Bush a public relations coup ('Bush pays surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq', November 28)?
Far from it.
One of the advantages of the United States being ruled by a simplistic Republican brigade of neo-conservatives is that its real motivations are often revealed very quickly.
In the case of this flight of fancy, its knee-jerkiness was evident once we knew that Hillary Clinton and another US senator had already planned a Thanksgiving visit to the Iraqi capital ('Path to Iraqi self rule less clear', November 30). Clearly, she just had to be shunted off the television newscasts.
Nevertheless, the fact that Mrs Clinton stayed in the open for more than a day and Mr Bush dared to sneak in for only a couple of hours speaks volumes about his paranoid administration's sense of priorities.
The presidential visit to Baghdad was as ludicrously stage-managed as such other flights of fancy electioneering as his posings on an aircraft carrier and at the World Trade Centre.
