Obama's Visit to Camp Victory

NEWS ITEM--April 7, 2009 - In an unannounced stop Tuesday at Baghdad's Camp Victory in battle-ravaged Iraq, President Barack Obama topped off a fencing-mending political tour through Europe where he sought to improve relations with European governments and was warmly received by crowds in each country..

  At the camp, U.S. forces mobbed Obama, snapping pictures and stretching out their arms for a handshake with the commander in chief who personally told them that they had "performed brilliantly" in a job that was nearly done.

  "It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country," Obama told the cheering troops who some observers said acted more like adoring campaign supporters than soldiers meeting with their president.

    Our Turn Comes Again

A few hours after mending Euro fences,

Obama left Turkey to meet our warriors

Standing post at Camp Victory's defenses.

Wildly cheering troups on extended war tours,

Confounded the critics with adulation

Of the man ending the Iraqi war years.

It's time Iraqis took charge of their nation,

Grasp their future, he said. We have other fires

Surging to destroy freedom's foundation.

Grim prospects lie in the graveyard of empires

Along the mountain border of Pakistan.

Here a mission certain demands truth, not lies.

To draw against the resurgent Taliban

And those al-Qaida allies seeking to

Return iniquity to Afghanistan.

Our turn now, he said, to see the battle through

To pledge American treasure, blood and senses

To the task only Americans can do.