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Bush makes surprise Iraq visit to close out tenure

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-14 22:12

BAGHDAD -- President George W. Bush on Sunday made a farewell visit to Iraq, a place that defines his presidency, just 37 days before he hands the war off to a successor who has pledged to end it.

US President George W. Bush delivers the commencement address during the Texas A&M University graduation ceremony at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas, United States, December 12. Bush began a farewell to Iraq Sunday, the country he ordered invaded in 2003, according to the White House.  [Agencies]

Air Force One, Bush's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time, after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington and an 11-hour flight.

Aiming to celebrate a new security pact between Washington and Baghdad, the president planned meetings with top US officials stationed in Iraq as well as with Iraqi leaders.

It was Bush's fourth visit to the war zone as president and his last before President-elect Barack Obama takes office Jan. 20. Bush's most recent Iraq stop was over 15 months ago, in September 2007.

Bush's trip was conducted under heavy security and a strict cloak of secrecy. People traveling with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans. The White House tried to avoid raising suspicion about the president's whereabouts by putting out false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday. Though the security situation in Iraq has improved dramatically, a trip to that war zone is still considered dangerous.

Bush's visit came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates' unannounced stop in Iraq on Saturday, at a sprawling military base in the central part of the country. Gates will be the lone Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet in the Obama administration.

Obama has promised he will bring all US combat troops back home from Iraq a little over a year after taking office, as long as commanders agree a withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has said that on his first day as president, he will summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the White House and give them a new mission: responsibly ending the war.

Obama has said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the US presence in Afghanistan. Commanders there want at least 20,000 more forces, but cannot get them unless some leave Iraq.

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