From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Yeah right. I reckon I just got caught up in 'side issues'. The belief that
Bush would engage in an honest conversation with the troops.
===
Later, at the White House briefing, Scott McClellan, the press secretary,
deflected questions about the choreography, saying reporters who asked
about that were getting caught up in "side issues."

"Mark"  wrote in message
news:434f2ab0$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Why in the world you'd think any televised interview by anyone of anyone,
> would be anything but pre-planned for brevity and content is beyond me
> Rich. "Caught?" with the cameras running all along?
>
> But this is a most entertaining take on it:
>
> http://biglizards.net/blog/archives/2005/10/ap_response_to.html
>
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:434ee31b{at}w3.nls.net...
>> The Bushies get caught again
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_8
>>
>> WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the
>> questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were
>> choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote
>> on a new Iraqi constitution.
>>
>> "This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy
assistant defense
>> secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The
>> president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."
>>
>> Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall
>> security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote
>> and efforts to train Iraqi troops.
>>
>> As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's
>> 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the
>> Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit - the birthplace of
>> former Iraqi leader     Saddam Hussein.
>>
>> "I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the
>> wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.
>>
>> A brief rehearsal ensued.
>>
>> "OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said.
"Captain Kennedy, you
>> answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
>>
>> "Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
>>
>> "Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to
whom?" she asked.
>>
>> "Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
>>
>> And so it went.
>>
>> "If the question comes up about partnering - how often do we train with
>> the Iraqi military - who does he go to?" Barber asked.
>>
>> "That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
>>
>> "And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks
in Tikrit -
>> the hometown - and how they're handling the political process, who are we
>> going to give that to?" she asked.
>>
>> Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and
>> reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the mission
>> was complete.
>>
>> "So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're
>> never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total
>> victory," Bush said.
>>
>> The president told them twice that the American people were behind them.
>>
>> "You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.
>>
>> Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they
>> approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public
>> now say the Iraq war was a mistake.
>>
>> White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was
>> coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were
>> expressing their own thoughts. With satellite feeds, coordination often
>> is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he said.
>>
>> "I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them
>> know what to expect," he said, adding that the president wanted to talk
>> with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the
>> situation.
>>
>> The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation.
>>
>> The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of the
>> chat.
>>
>> "Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I
like you."
>>
>> On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said:
>> "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a
>> success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election,
>> we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan.
>> We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir,
>> they're doing everything."
>>
>> On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo
>> from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the
past 10 months,
>> we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences
>> of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we
>> anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting
>> independent operations."
>>
>> Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11,
>> 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery
>> and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight
>> against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were
>> proud to continue it in Iraq.
>>
>> "I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then
joked: "I probably
>> look familiar to you, too."
>>
>> Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an
>> advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and     Afghanistan, denounced
>> the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt."
Five of the 10 U.S.
>> troops involved were officers, he said.
>>
>> "If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a
>> nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said.
"He needs to be
>> talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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