John "Surge" McCain recently went on Wolf Blitzer's show and claimed that things were looking up in Iraq, that the U.S. commander General Petreaus was able to travel through Baghdad in an unarmored Humvee and that anyone could stroll through much of the city. He was almost immediately contradicted on his "facts" about Iraq by the CNN reporter who actually spends most of his time there and by a spokesman for General Petraeus himself - who doesn't go anywhere without a heavily armored vehicle. Now McCain himself has gone to Iraq for a quick visit, where he went shopping with fellow traveler Lindsey Graham - in an armored vehicle and with a contingent of U.S. troops. According to news reports, the pols wore body armor and their movements were covered by Blackhawk helicopters. Violence in the major hot spots - including Baghdad - continues unabated.
But - in fairness - the news for travelers in Iraq isn't all bad...as noted at the tail end of our clipping from McClatchy's take on this story.
McCain says Baghdad safer; six U.S. soldiers killed
McClatchy Newspapers - 4/1/07 BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sen. John McCain used a short visit to Baghdad Sunday to highlight what he said is progress made under the city’s recent security crackdown and criticize the news media for focusing on the bad news out of Iraq. McCain, the Republican presidential contender whose strong backing of the U.S. troop surge has cost him support in the polls, spent over an hour in a central Baghdad marketplace with three other members of a congressional delegation and pronounced the city safer than he’d seen it in past visits. “Things are better. There are encouraging signs,” McCain said during a terse exchange with reporters afterward inside a U.S. military compound in the heavily guarded Green Zone. The deaths of six American soldiers were announced on Sunday. Two of those died when a roadside bomb exploded southwest of Baghdad just before midnight Saturday. The other four died a few minutes later early Sunday when they responded to the first explosion. All told, March was the 10th deadliest month for U.S. service personnel in Iraq since the war began, with 82 killed, according to the icasualties Web site, which tracks coalition fatalities based on official Pentagon information. Sixty-nine of those died of wounds from enemy fire. The number of unidentified bodies found on Baghdad street has dropped during a six-week-old crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi troops, who are manning joint security outposts in parts of the city for the first time since the start of the war in 2003. McCain’s delegation drove from the airport into central Baghdad, a journey that VIP guests usually make by helicopter. But the number of bodies found has been rising in the past two weeks, according to a daily tally kept by McClatchy Newspapers, to 19 per day after dropping to an average of 13 per day. Before the security plan went into effect Feb.15, the average was more than 30 per day. Sixteen bodies were found on Sunday. In the rest of Iraq, violence last week reached the highest level in months. The worst violence came in the northern city of Tal Afar, where a massive truck bombing killed more than 83 people and triggered a revenge shooting spree that left another 45 dead, according to U.S. military statistics. The Arizona senator, 70, appeared annoyed when asked about
comments he’d made last week suggesting that it was safe to walk in
Baghdad’s streets. During their visit to Bab al-Sharqi market - where
88 people died in a suicide attack in January - the delegation members
traveled in armored vehicles and were closely guarded by U.S. troops.
UPDATE: Troops were sent on a "security sweep" mission so that McCain and Graham could take this phony photo op stroll. Former CIA & State Department counter-terrorism expert Larry C. Johnson has more on this, printed in full from his blog, No Quarter, below... |
The GOP delegation - which included Sen. Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina and Reps. Rick Renzi or Arizona and Mike Pence of
Indiana - mingled with shoppers and haggled over the price of rugs.
Graham proudly announced to reporters that he’d bought five rugs for
$5. (Image of local merchandise courtesy of Beautiful Horizons.)What John McCain Didn't Tell You
by Larry C Johnson
While John McCain was excoriating the press in Baghdad yesterday for not presenting the "full story" about how swell things are in Iraq he neglected to mention the pre-visit security sweep that made that neighborhood stroll so safe. I am sure you have already heard about the 100 soldiers, the three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships that accompanied his entourage, but did you hear about the soldiers who swept the area before the American legislators and their security team showed up? Who cares about those mooks? They are expendable.
John McCain and Lindsey Graham put American soldiers' lives at risk just so they could have a photo op. That's the bottomline. Why didn't they do a ride along on a real patrol? Perhaps they could have joined the U.S. team that responded to an ambush of an American patrol yesterday? Of course a total of six U.S. soldiers died in that operation. Shit! You can't take real risks. No sir. Instead, U.S. military resources are devoted to making propaganda. U.S. soldiers were ordered into harms way just to ensure a congressional delegation could walk around, look serious, and perpetuate the lie that more U.S. soldiers must come to Iraq and die. That was a propaganda event and fucking General Petraeus ought to be ashamed.
U.S. soldiers entered the neighborhood before the delegation arrived for its stroll. They searched for explosives, sent informants into the crowd, set up a perimeter, and secured the area before the Senators showed up with their 100 armed guards. And for what? To keep McCain, Graham and others safe. What happened to the Iraqi utopia John McCain so confidently insisted was there for eveyone to see? If the "true" picutre of Iraq was simply a matter of getting the news cameras pointed in the right direction then why did he need a security detail? If the peace and prosperity the Iraqi people are celebrating in safe neighborhoods is genuine then why wear body armor?
You know why? Because John McCain is completely full of shit. He may be delusional but his survival instinct is still intact. When he goes into a war zone he wants to be protected. And U.S. soldiers carried out that mission yesterday so John McCain could try to hoodwink the American people into backing the surge and sending more troops into harms way. I don't know about you, but that pisses me off.
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