Surprise, Surprise!

John and I saw REM in 1984 at an unannounced gig at the Rat in Boston. It was fab and we ended up in a photo that appeared in Rolling Stone and REM's coffee table book.

Do you think that REM didn't announce the show because they were afraid of getting shot? Me either.

With the Bush administration touting "progress" in Iraq one has to wonder why all of their shows in Baghdad are unannounced. Surely they would sell more tickets if people knew they were coming. You would think that Mr. Bush would have let the Prime Minister know, hey, coming over to see you. Instead, Mr. Al Malaki was just told he was meeting with a senior American official and, surprise! Bush jumps out of the cake.

According to The New York Times Mr. Rumsfeld just made an unannounced visit to Iraq.

Rumsfeld emphasized he was not planning to discuss plans for reducing U.S. troop levels during this visit...

Which makes sense. If you are afraid to let people know you are coming to their country because you could die you want as many troops around you as possible.

Update. I am watching the Situation Room and according to them Mr. Rumsfeld flew the 35 miles from the Air Base to Baghdad because it was just too dangerous for him to drive the road to Baghdad. It's booby trapped. I don't know how he can look the troops in the face when one asked him why they have better equipment in NYC than the troops do in Iraq. And they HAVE to drive that road.