Today was the second long, long day in a row in the White House press corps accompanying President Bush on his trip to the Middle East.
All the details are blurry, but here is a rundown of today.
We started out early, with a 5:45 baggage call at our Kuwait City hotel, and went to Camp Arifjan to see Mr. Bush talk with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.
The funny thing about this video is how wrong I was — the motorcade had already passed us and was probably the reason for the traffic jam. But still, the background is accurate and relevant.
At the enormous resupply base for the U.S. war effort in Iraq and all other Middle East operations, Mr. Bush spoke to reporters from a large operations room, with Petraeus, Crocker and Secretary Rice next to him.
He then addressed about 3,000 soldiers at an outdoor venue — the soldiers gave Mr. Bush a warm, but not overwhelming, welcome. The president spoke for only about five minutes. It was an "unusually cold" morning in Kuwait, according to one soldier, in the high 30s or so.
After leaving Camp Arifjan, Mr. Bush met with Kuwaiti women who are involved in women's suffrage and other equal-rights issues. Only the "pool" reporters saw this, as the press charter departed for Bahrain before the president did.
From an atmospheric point of view, Mr. Bush's arrival in Bahrain was the highlight of the day. The setting was beautiful and the Arab swordsmen dancers were amazing. Ironically, the White House travel staff were hustling reporters and photographers away from the stage when Mr. Bush was handed a sword and held it aloft, producing the picture of the trip, albeit one that was only captured by a few.
But the day has stretched now from about 5:30 a.m. to almost 11 p.m. After several consecutive nights of about four hours of sleep, that starts to wear one down, no matter how amazing the sights and sounds of a trip. See you tomorrow — I need to get some sleep!
— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (1)
Hardly any coverage of Bush in West Bank, with Christian religious contacts, and Bush at place where Bush's precious Jesus, in fact, was born! Lots of coverage of holocaust ref laying and tearing up of Bush, twice, that did NOT happen. I want a Palestine nation, on Palestinians 'deeded' land. No one in U.S. would allow another to take our homes that 'we' have a deed to and we had nothing to defend our home, land and families with but rocks and old hand made rocket, that don't kill, but scare the hell out of Jewish occupiers, but certainly not enough to stop their and the U.S. 60 year occupation of Palestine. 60 yrs. of brutal occupation, bougth and paid for by U.S. taxpayers has given the Jewish state the money and the weapons to commit, apartheid by the Israel, who should change its name from Israel to Jewish State 'officially' if it wants to be referred to as a Jewish religious state.
Posted by SJ | January 12, 2008 10:56 PM