Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
November 12, 2008
Pg. 11
President Helps Rededicate Museum
By Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writer
NEW YORK, Nov. 11 -- Basking in the warm welcome of hundreds of past and current military personnel, President Bush marked Veterans Day on a famous World War II-vintage aircraft carrier, helping to dedicate a newly renovated museum.
Country singer John Rich, another of the high-profile guests at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, took a moment Tuesday to note the lack of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Despite public criticism of Bush, he said, "the last time I checked, you can't bat better than 1.000."
When it was Bush's turn to address the crowd, he returned the good wishes of the fellow Texan. "John," he said, "tell them we're coming home, and we're coming home with our heads held high."
Bush spent more than five hours on the USS Intrepid, a tourist destination on the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan that was shuttered for two years while undergoing a $120 million refurbishment. After landing on the flight deck in his Marine helicopter, the president and first lady Laura Bush took a private tour of the vessel, and had a close look at a TBM Avenger, the kind of bomber his father, former president George H.W. Bush, was piloting when he was shot down in World War II.
Bush later met with the families of nine military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, a session that lasted longer than scheduled -- unusual for the typically punctual president but a sign, perhaps, of the intense emotions of such visits.
The visit also prompted some reflection from Bush in a CNN interview. Asked whether he has regrets about his tenure as president, he replied: "Being on this ship reminds me of when I went to the USS Abraham Lincoln and they had a sign that said 'Mission Accomplished.' I regret that that sign was there. . . . To some it said, well, Bush thinks the war in Iraq is over, when I didn't think that. But nevertheless it conveyed the wrong message."
Bush also reiterated comments he made in 2006 and this June by telling CNN that he regrets "saying some things I shouldn't have said . . . like, 'dead or alive,' 'bring 'em on.' . . . I was trying to convey a message. I probably could have conveyed it more artfully."
About 2,500 people gathered on the pier next to the Intrepid to greet the president. The crowd included veterans and their families, and numerous dignitaries, such as former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Scott Carpenter, New York Gov. David A. Paterson (D) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Onstage with Bush was Marine Lance Cpl. Matt Bradford, who lost his legs and his sight in Iraq and who previously met the president while a patient at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. When they last met, Bradford scaled a 35-foot rock wall, earning plaudits from the commander in chief.
"The war on terror has required courage; it has required resolve equal to what previous generations of Americans brought to the fields of Europe and the deep waters of the Pacific," Bush told the audience. "And I'm proud to report to my fellow citizens, our armed forces, the armed forces of this generation, have showed up for the fight, and America is more secure for it."
Bush grew nostalgic during Tuesday's appearance, telling the crowd that he is often asked what he will miss most after he leaves office in January.
My "first reaction is, I say, no traffic jams in New York," he said. "The truth of the matter is, I will miss being the commander in chief of such a fabulous group of men and women -- those who wear the uniform of the United States military."
November 12, 2008
Pg. 11
President Helps Rededicate Museum
By Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writer
NEW YORK, Nov. 11 -- Basking in the warm welcome of hundreds of past and current military personnel, President Bush marked Veterans Day on a famous World War II-vintage aircraft carrier, helping to dedicate a newly renovated museum.
Country singer John Rich, another of the high-profile guests at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, took a moment Tuesday to note the lack of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Despite public criticism of Bush, he said, "the last time I checked, you can't bat better than 1.000."
When it was Bush's turn to address the crowd, he returned the good wishes of the fellow Texan. "John," he said, "tell them we're coming home, and we're coming home with our heads held high."
Bush spent more than five hours on the USS Intrepid, a tourist destination on the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan that was shuttered for two years while undergoing a $120 million refurbishment. After landing on the flight deck in his Marine helicopter, the president and first lady Laura Bush took a private tour of the vessel, and had a close look at a TBM Avenger, the kind of bomber his father, former president George H.W. Bush, was piloting when he was shot down in World War II.
Bush later met with the families of nine military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, a session that lasted longer than scheduled -- unusual for the typically punctual president but a sign, perhaps, of the intense emotions of such visits.
The visit also prompted some reflection from Bush in a CNN interview. Asked whether he has regrets about his tenure as president, he replied: "Being on this ship reminds me of when I went to the USS Abraham Lincoln and they had a sign that said 'Mission Accomplished.' I regret that that sign was there. . . . To some it said, well, Bush thinks the war in Iraq is over, when I didn't think that. But nevertheless it conveyed the wrong message."
Bush also reiterated comments he made in 2006 and this June by telling CNN that he regrets "saying some things I shouldn't have said . . . like, 'dead or alive,' 'bring 'em on.' . . . I was trying to convey a message. I probably could have conveyed it more artfully."
About 2,500 people gathered on the pier next to the Intrepid to greet the president. The crowd included veterans and their families, and numerous dignitaries, such as former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Scott Carpenter, New York Gov. David A. Paterson (D) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Onstage with Bush was Marine Lance Cpl. Matt Bradford, who lost his legs and his sight in Iraq and who previously met the president while a patient at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. When they last met, Bradford scaled a 35-foot rock wall, earning plaudits from the commander in chief.
"The war on terror has required courage; it has required resolve equal to what previous generations of Americans brought to the fields of Europe and the deep waters of the Pacific," Bush told the audience. "And I'm proud to report to my fellow citizens, our armed forces, the armed forces of this generation, have showed up for the fight, and America is more secure for it."
Bush grew nostalgic during Tuesday's appearance, telling the crowd that he is often asked what he will miss most after he leaves office in January.
My "first reaction is, I say, no traffic jams in New York," he said. "The truth of the matter is, I will miss being the commander in chief of such a fabulous group of men and women -- those who wear the uniform of the United States military."