When You Stand On The Ground Here In Anbar

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Thanks for your messages.  I almost passed this up.

Besides the strange, and strangely uniform expressions (whiff of fear?), it seems like Bush/Gates/Condi must have be been pretty hot in those coats given those steamy Anbar evenings.

And yes, the best commentary on the pic were those two wonderful sentences back-to-back in the NYT write-up:

“When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq can look like,” [Bush] said, night having fallen at the base.

During his visit, Mr. Bush did not leave the base, a heavily fortified home to about 10,000 American troops about 120 miles west of Baghdad.

But in terms of the appearance of progress, which is what all this business is about, anyway (for which, someone deserves some congratulations for plunking down a real American fortress as compared to that train wreck they call the Green Zone), the real step forward from a year ago is that Administration folks have actually figured out how  to get their pictures taken on this front line of terrorism without the flak jackets. 

Now, about those heels….

(Briefly updated. 9/6/07)

(Jason Reed/Reuters.  Anbar Provence, Iraq. September 3, 2007.  via nytimes.com)