McCain's "safe" market is site of massacre

[babylonsister]

http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/50187

McCain's "safe" market is site of massacre

It almost seems like beating a dead horse to note this development but the irony is so biting it'd be unfair not to. McCain was spanked repeatedly over the past two weeks for his reality-challenged remarks on the safety of Baghdad and the progress in Iraq in general. Unless you're plugged into Fox News or your home page is The Free Republic, the idiocy of these statements needs no backup.

Well, numbers and trends are one thing, even if they represent mayhem and death, but direct contradiction is another; McCain's BS photo-op took a tragic turn yesterday: "21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital."

"The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress."

One can't help but wonder if this wasn't in response to McCain's false bravado.

[kirby]

1. Gen Petraeus-News Hour-McCain bolsters Iraq Economy!!!

He was claiming that things really were safe. I lost all respect for him after that interview last night. I dont think Marine Jim Lehrer was buying it.

Here is the transcript (as well as video)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june07/petraeus_04-04.html

Funniest Excerpt about McCain:
And it may be as much as a kilometer, almost a mile long, so this is an enormous market, as I said, tens of thousands of Iraqis in it.
He was not protected by a cocoon of security. Yep, there was security there, but he was out --
actually he helped the Iraqi economy quite a bit, bought a number of carpets, in fact. And he haggled with the merchants himself,
with an interpreter, and was moving all around very freely.

Another Disingenuous Excerpt:

JIM LEHRER: But as you know, the reports describe that situation slightly differently. They say there were armed
helicopters overhead. There were armed Humvees all around. There were more than 100 armed U.S. troops around,
protecting Senator McCain and the congressional delegation, that this was hardly a routine visit to a market. So which is it?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: Well, there was considerable security, as I said, Jim, around it. Actually,
there's security when I go down there, as well.

But having said that, I mean, a suicide vest bomber could have walked up to him just as easily as they could have walked up to me.
We were not, you know, surrounding him, again, with some kind of cocoon of soldiers. He moved around freely.

We have helicopters usually flying when I'm actually out in the markets, as well, I mean, sometimes whether you know it or not,
because, as I mentioned, no one wants to lose, you know, some high-ranking guy on their watch.

Again, having said that, there are snipers that are always possible. There are others who are possible in these marketplaces. Y
ou cannot control that kind of activity. And, again, I thought, you know, it was a fairly routine stop out there, in terms of just
sort of strolling through a market, albeit with, you know, squads of guys out there in that marketplace.

But they are fairly heavily patrolled markets anyway, with Iraqi -- these markets are always controlled during the time that they're in
operation to prevent vehicles, in fact, from moving through the access barriers when those markets are open. They're only allowed to move
vehicles in and out, when the markets are shut, to deliver goods. And then they're excluded.

[zulchzulu]

2. I was disappointed in Lehrer giving Patraeus a free pass on McCain's antic

There was a point in the interview where Lehrer could have asked why it is considered so safe when you have to have the area cleaned out first, have 100 heavily armed soldiers and millions of dollars worth of helicopters overhead with snipers on the rooftop...

It was like he wanted to get the interview over with.

[kirby]

3. He had limited time..

He did have limited time and he approached the question several ways and Patraeus wouldn't budge. I think Jim knew it
was bullshit and gave him a 'respectful' smackdown because he finished the interview with this:

JIM LEHRER: General, finally, at your confirmation hearings, following up what we've been talking about
here, at your confirmation hearings in January, you said you would report back to Congress regularly
and candidly about what was going on. And do you feel you have done that?