Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute on Let Them Eat Turkey:
Bill Clinton should be green with envy. George W. Bush, Clinton’s successor and bird of a feather in his quest to stay out of the jungles of Vietnam, in one fell swoop has addressed doubts about both his personal courage and his solidarity with soldiers risking their lives in Iraq. Bush’s turkey day trot to Iraq for dinner was a masterful stroke in public relations — at least in the short-term. In the long-term, it could put the Bush presidency further in the soup (or the gravy, as the case may be).
A closer examination of Bush’s public relations stunt raises questions about its sincerity and wisdom. The headline — from a cooing press ready to gobble up any story on a particularly slow news day — was that the president risked his life to show support for the troops.
Read the rest here.