Stephen Colbert is on a USO tour in Iraq.

The Colbert Report visited the troops at Camp Victory Friday. Colbert gave up his hair at the behest of President Obama. Three more shows to be broadcast this week will originate from the Persian Gulf, where Colbert is entertaining US troops in a forgotten theatre.

Shortly after the inauguration, though, he began talking to a fellow board member at Donorschoose about the troops in Iraq.

There was a general feeling among soldiers there, the board member said, that Americans had largely tuned the war out, that the economy had vacuumed up all the attention even though there are around 135,000 troops still here and still doing dangerous work.

“There’s a thesis statement there, which is something for my character to hang on to,” he said. “My character thinks the war is over because he doesn’t hear about it anymore. He’s like a child. A ball rolls behind the couch and he thinks it’s gone forever.”

Soldiers here are all too aware of America’s attention span about this war, several of them at the taping said. So the visit of Mr. Colbert, postmodern or not, was an unexpectedly high-caliber event among the recent string of retired baseball managers (Tommy Lasorda actually), wrestlers, cheerleaders and actors whose names require a little Googling.

“I’m surprised that anybody comes here,” said 27-year-old Lt. Travis Klempan of the Navy, from Lafayette, Colo. “I mean we had the guy from the Allstate commercial. It’s like: that’s nice.”

We still have more than 140,000 GIs in harm's way. More than 4,300 have died since w started this war of choice in March 2003.

The comedian who masquerades as a journalist on Comedy Central and whose stock-in-trade is a satirical "conservative" outlook on the news and the subjects of his interviews puts his money where his mouth is for a number of worthy causes -- and not least of these is his genuine support for the men and women in uniform.

For openers, U.S. President Barack Obama appeared by video to thank the troops. "You're welcome," the mock pundit answered.

"I wasn't talking to you," the president deadpanned.

To the roaring approval of hundreds of troops at Camp Victory, on the western edge of Baghdad, Colbert taped the first of four episodes of The Colbert Report, in which he plays a pompous, blustering conservative TV host.

His first guest was the towering, bald Gen. Ray Odierno. When Obama and the U.S. commander suggested Colbert had to look like a soldier in order to be a soldier, the general took an electric razor to Colbert's perfectly parted cable-news coif.

The four shows being taped in the domed marble hall at Saddam Hussein's former Al Faw Palace are to air this week starting Monday on Comedy Central. The Colbert Report airs on CTV and the Comedy Network in Canada.

Colbert has promoted the trip for weeks, but only vaguely because the military urged caution. Instead, the pundit introduced segments with a jaunty theme: "Where in the World and When in Time is Stephen Colbert Going to Be in the Persian Gulf?"

At Camp Victory, Colbert was in typical, cluelessly egotistical form. He showed a clip pretending that he himself didn't know his destination until he got off the plane and somebody threw a shoe at him.

Colbert also made some serious points during his monologue -- in typical 'unserious' fashion.

laiming the war must be over because nobody's talking about it anymore, Colbert invoked the power of cable television to "officially declare we won the Iraq war."

He offered a list of successes and commentary to bolster his point.

They included weapons of mass destruction, which was deemed "easier than we thought," and telling the troops that President Barack Obama should deploy them to the struggling General Motors.

However, his first guest, Odierno, disagreed the war has ended.

"We're not quite ready to declare victory," he said. "Things are moving forward but again, it's about bringing long-term stability."

Colbert, who sat at a desk propped up by sandbags painted to simulate an American flag, responded by asking Odierno if he can bring long-term stability to the United States when he's done in Iraq.

Like anything, the USO tour has had its setbacks as a result of the impact of reality on plans. Iraq, like West Texas, is a place where sandstorms can do everything from stripping the finish off vehicles to destroying aircraft components and forcing all operations to come to a halt.

Odierno later told him he had too much hair to be a soldier, prompting the crewcut.

"Definitely the highlight was seeing him sacrifice his hair," said Spc. Ryan MacLeod, 35, of Greenville, South Carolina.

Former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain also made a surprise appearance in a videoclip in which he thanked the troops for their service and reminded them to clean their muskets.

Celebrities have frequently traveled to Iraq to entertain the troops. But the series of half-hour shows — dubbed "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando" — mark the first time anyone has broadcast a taped show from Iraq from a tour intended to entertain U.S. troops.

USO senior official John Hanson said the production faced a major setback when a sandstorm grounded the crew on Saturday, forcing it to cancel plans for an outing.

Both the character Colbert (silent "t'') and the real Colbert (pronounced "t''), a Catholic family man, are ardent supporters of the troops. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Yellow Ribbon Fund (a charity that assists injured service members and their families), and he's a board member of DonorsChoose.org, which is raising money for the education of children of parents in the military.

The trip came about when former Assistant Secretary of Defense Bing West suggested it after an interview last July on "The Colbert Report." The show sent about 30 production workers, about a third of the show's regular staff, to Iraq.

Troops in the audience said they enjoyed Colbert's equal opportunity humor.

"I especially appreciate the fact that he could make fun of both sides and you'd learn something and you'd laugh," said Chaplain Lt. Col. Barbara Sherer, 52, from Springfield, Missouri.

I'm not usually a commercialist. But this is worth promoting.

Colbert's the guy who singlehandedly served up the truth, unvarnished and in all its inconvenience and unpalatability, to the Washington Press Corps and former President George W. Bush.

Maybe his declaration of victory in Iraq will lead to bringing home all our troops. It's a promise I'd like to see this President live up to, quickly.

And damn but that digital-camouflage suit is gorgeous. I'm not a suits type, usually; but somehow Colbert's rendition -- paired with what look, to my unpracticed eyes, like a USMC dress uniform tie and khaki shirt -- both respects the troops and makes the not-quite-a-uniform elegant.

In keeping with his persona (remember the rock-and-roll suit, where the shirt and jacket have the sleeves ripped out a la The Boss?) Colbert chose not to don fatigues (aka the BDU/Combat uniform) -- but to show his support for the GIs in the theatre not with mockery but with symmetry. Maybe the MilSpec folks could produce a similarly upgraded look for the next generation of GI "undress" work clothes.

(There's mess dress, dress uniform, undress uniform, and battle dress / utility, as far as I know. Mess dress is costly and non-issue. Dress, undress and BDU, along with, as I understand it, a PT uniform now, comes with the job -- just like the three hots and a cot, the boots, the haircut, and the general loss of a private life one endures upon entering the service). As a delighted consumer of permanent press fatigues during my USAF enlisted days, I actually think the GIs not forced to starch and iron their BDUs have an advantage -- one I don't envy them at all, given all the other changes in the military in the 30 years since I was enlisted.

The New York Times
has more about the visit, including some comments Colbert himself made on the utility (and reliability) of journalists who have worked as embeds since the war began.

On the other hand he is unquestionably a real supporter of the troops, raising money through donorschoose.org for school supplies for children of soldiers, through his WristStrong bracelets for the Yellow Ribbon Fund, which helps injured veterans, and by donating to the U.S.O. proceeds from iTunes downloads of this week’s episodes.

So it was easy to wonder if, given the setting, he would be a little less mock Bill O’Reilly and a bit more risk-free Rich Little.

Any doubt was dispersed the minute Mr. Colbert ran out onstage wearing a business suit made of Army camouflage and, shortly afterward, declared himself the only person man enough finally to declare victory in Iraq. (General Odierno, whom Mr. Colbert compared to Shrek, diplomatically talked that declaration down.)

Mr. Colbert himself does not seem to be fazed by this seemingly tricky balancing act. Neither he nor his character knows what it’s like to be a soldier, he said in an interview here Saturday night. Only, his character thinks he knows.

“Think of certain reporters who lose themselves in their own self-importance and accidentally give away troop movements and get kicked out of the country,” he said in a not particularly oblique reference to Geraldo Rivera.

“The best way I can show gratitude is to do my show the best I can and make them laugh,” he said. “If I tried to tailor my material to people in the Army, there’d be two things. A, that’d be patronizing. And B, I’d be wrong.”

As a vet, and as somebody who grew up watching Bob Hope's USO shows for troops in Vietnam, I appreciated the golf club over Colbert's shoulder during his opening gig on the show, taped Sunday, that aired last night. As an American, I look forward to seeing the rest of the broadcasts this week -- there's been no "serious" news from Iraq for months, let alone follow-up to the Walter Reed / VA scandals, news about how returning vets are faring in our job-starved economy, or serious discussion of GI Bill benefits, or lack thereof, awaiting the soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and coast guards risking life, limb and sanity overseas on behalf of a largely inattentive and sometimes downright ungrateful nation.

If you want to hate the war, go ahead. But don't hate the GIs -- hate the warmongers, in the White House, the hallowed halls of Congress, and the Main$tream Media. Hate the needless loss of life; hate the senseless suffering. I'll join you.

I just won't sit back and listen meekly to the notion that the servicemembers deserve whatever happens to them because they volunteered.

Thanks for your time and consideration. Please take a few minutes to think about the GIs, and the veterans, regardless of what war in which they served, in your community.