Bush gets flak for visit to Iraq

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Detractors of President Bush's clandestine trip to Iraq were quick to denounce it yesterday, asserting that the Bush administration had orchestrated the Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops for political gain.

"This is a president who has been unwilling to provide his presence to the families who have suffered, but thinks nothing of flying to Baghdad to use the troops there as a prop," said Joe Lockhart, former spokesman for President Clinton.

The president swooped into Baghdad at night aboard Air Force One with running lights off and window shades drawn to prevent terrorists from targeting the plane.

"The trip highlights how insecure Iraq is and shows how we need to get our allies in to get the American face off the occupation," said Jamal Simmons, a spokesman for Democratic candidate Wesley Clark, a retired Army general.

The Democratic candidates sought to walk a fine line between applauding the president's support of U.S. troops and criticizing the White House incumbent whose job they hope to win in 2004.

"The president did the right thing by visiting the troops yesterday, but this visit won't change the fact that those brave men and women should never have been fighting in Iraq in the first place," said Courtney O'Donnell, a spokesman for Democratic front-runner Howard Dean.

She said the campaign did not mass-mail the former Vermont governor's statement about the trip, but instead has been "replying to people who have called."

Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat whose campaign recently has faltered, said: "The president's trip to Baghdad was the right thing to do for our country. ... But, when Thanksgiving is over, I hope the president will take the time to correct his failed policy in Iraq that has placed our soldiers in a shooting gallery."

Mr. Kerry conceded, however, he thought the trip was "terrific."