You might wonder whether the President of the United States pays any attention to blogs supporting the war effort. Is he aware of the contribution that milblogs and new media more generally are making to the effort to educate the American public on the war and convince them of the necessity of victory?
You can stop wondering. I am here today to happily report that he is indeed aware, and does indeed appreciate the work bloggers are doing.
This morning, I had the privledge of being among a small group of eight bloggers invited to the White House for a personal meeting with the President. We spent a full hour in the Roosevelt Room with President Bush and a few senior staff, including both outgoing press secretary Tony Snow and incoming press secretary Dana Perino. In addition to the folks in the room, we had two embedded bloggers videoconferenced in from Baghdad. After the discussion, the President showed us into the Oval Office, did some quick photos which each of us, and then led us out to the patio where he continued out to Marine One and we watched him take off while the assembled press watched us, clearly wondering "who the heck are those people?".
Not surprisingly, the President did not break any news with us, but he did have a few great comments and was overall just as engaging in person as I had expected him to be. The biggest impression I came away with is best expressed in a thought that occured to me during the session, which was that anyone who sat through an hour with this man as I did and came away unconvinced that he sincerely believes in the message of freedom and the necessity of this fight would have to be crazy. He exudes sincerity and passion when he speaks of the this mission, and I'm simply baffled by anyone who tries to claim that it's all politics, or all Halliburton, or all about the oil. Not for the man I saw today, it isn't.
We each had a chance to ask questions, and I took my time to tell the President about our efforts with the Stand By the Mission petition. I emphasized the success we've had and the way we've been able to do our part via the petition to push back against MoveOn's libel against General Petraeus by giving Americans a way to express their support for the general and our troops, and he of course welcomed the news.
So I wasn't trying to create a transcript of the session, but took a few notes. Here are some of the most interesting quotes I captured (all approximate):
- The President told of how his father fought the Japanese, and how he himself had now met with the Japanese Prime Minister in the Oval Office to discuss how Japan and America could work together to help newly forming democracies. He emphasized the need to "transform former enemies into allies."
- On progress in the war: "Wars don't go from Point A to Point Z; democracies don't go from Point A to Point Z."
- On the Taliban's "offensives" in Afghanistan: "When they show up, they are losing."
- On Al Qaeda's leadership: "When you look at the history of the Chief Operating Officer of Al Qaeda [bin Laden's top deputy], you're not alive or you're captured."
- On the need for success in Iraq vs. withdrawal: "If you think it's bad now, imagine what the world would be like if we created a void [by withdrawing]."
- On the challenges of finding democratic leaders to step up in Iraq, he described a conversation including Ambassador Crocker where someone cited the example of South Africa's Nelson Mandela and asked of Iraq, "Where's Mandela?". The President said "Crocker said, 'dead'...[killed by Saddam]...this is a society that's learning how to be a democracy."
- On the new Iraqi government's need to gain the trust of their people: "Does the average cat understand... this is a government for the people?" (yes, the President said "cat". Groovy.)
- Responding to one of the bloggers in Iraq he expressed envy that they could be there, and said he'd like to be there but "One, I'm too old to be out there, and two, they would notice me."
This was a no-press event (although it was not off-the-record, so I'm not telling tales out of school), but there was an official photographer taking pictures that we'll all be getting copies of, so I'll share those when they are ready. And if you're wondering why I haven't named the other bloggers at the meeting, that's on purpose: some of the folks present are even more cautious about their public profile than I am, and until I hear for sure who wants to be mentioned vs. who doesn't, I will err on the side of leaving it to each attendee to post on their participation themselves. But check back; soon as I see other folks posting on the event, I'll link to them here.
Finally, I'd like to publicly thank the President and all the White House staff who worked to make this event happen (they know who they are). It was a great idea, and I hope the White House continues their increasing efforts to reach out to bloggers and new media.
Update - More from the other attendees: Castle Argghhh! Bill Roggio (from Iraq) Bill Ardolino (from Iraq)
 |
