Difference in Confidence

Listening to the radio coming into work this morning about President Bush’s surprise trip to Bagdad, and there is one thing I wanted to comment on that I didn’t hear people explicitly commenting on. (I haven’t checked the blogosphere yet for this sort of thing, just noticing the people on the radio didn’t comment on this.)

On all other VIP trips to Iraq that I can remember… Tony Blair, George W Bush, even cabinet members and such, the news has been embargoed until the VIP has LEFT and is now back out of Iraqi airspace.

This time the news embargo was lifted while the President was still on the ground and was planning to stay on the ground for several more hours.

Now, unless this turns out to be disinformation and he has actually already left, that means that they are now feeling confident enough that they can essentially give any insurgents who are interested a several hour head start saying “if you want to make a spectacular attack, now would be the time” and still feel confident they can defend against any possible attacks.

They aren’t quite ready to announce such trips BEFORE they happen. But even that they let the news get out while it is still happening is still a very significant change.