U.S. Government

The Washington Post reports the picture-perfect turkey George W. Bush held in front-page photos of his Thanksgiving jaunt to Baghdad was actually a decoration. Instead of being served slices of the golden-brown bird by the President, troops were served from cafeteria steam trays.

The Bush Administration has been doing its best to paint a happy face on the Iraq occupation but reality keeps getting in the way. The New York Times reports today that even in Mosul, a city 'once so promising,' the current American military 'crackdown is draining away much of the goodwill that remains.' Earlier this month a leaked CIA report warned that resistance to the US occupation is growing among ordinary Iraqis, leading to a new US plan to speed up transfer of power to Iraqis.

James R. Wilkson ran the White House Coalition Information Center for "the war against terrorism" and also served as top PR strategist for General Tommy Franks during the US attack on Iraq. Most recently he has been been planning the 2004 Republican convention to be held in New York city coinciding with the third anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack. A White House press release today announces that he will soon be back in the White House with a couple of new titles: "Deputy Assistant to the President" and "Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications."

"For a long time, Bush's poor job approval ratings on domestic issues were more than counterbalanced by his strong approval ratings on international issues. But that formula for political success is falling apart," writes Ruy Texeira. The latest polls show that only 48 percent of the public approves of his handling of foreign policy and Iraq. A majority believes the war with Iraq was not worth the cost and that the Bush administration was hiding information or lying about what it knew when it made the case for war.