A surprise visit

Doesn't it seem strange that every time a government official goes to Iraq, its a "surprise visit". Do a search on "surprise visit" and you will see thousands of articles about how Rice, Bush, Rumsfeld, or Chaney made a surprise visit. All of the articles try to spin the surprise as a gift to the troops to increase moral. What they should be saying is the place is so dangerous that we can not protect our officials over there with a pre-communicated visit.