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Whom is John McCain trying to fool?
The stroll through a Baghdad market conducted by John McCain, the Arizona senator and 2008 presidential hopeful, along with a number of other Republicans, was a stage-managed farce that will convince no one. McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Reps. Rick Renzi of Arizona and Mike Pence of Indiana walked through the Shorja market Sunday and afterward praised the “progress” being made by the US military in Iraq.
At a news conference, where he was questioned by skeptical journalists, McCain claimed that “Things are better, and there are encouraging signs.”
Surreally, Rep. Pence went so far as to comment, “I candidly was not prepared to find a marketplace where thousands and thousands of Iraqis were moving about in regular everyday life like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”
Sen. Graham indicated that for him the Shorja visit was just another tourist adventure: “We went to the market and were warmly welcomed. I bought five rugs for five bucks.”
This farce has an element of derangement about it.
These are the conditions under which McCain and company took their little jaunt April 1: US soldiers entered the area before the American politicians, searched for explosives, sent informants among the people there, set up a perimeter and “secured” the neighborhood. Sharpshooters were deployed on rooftops.
The Republican delegation flew from the heavily-fortified Green Zone to a forward operating base in Baghdad, and then traveled by Humvee to the market. Once there, the politicians were accompanied by a “small army,” in the words of a Newsweek reporter, perhaps as many as 100 soldiers, while three Black Hawk helicopters and two Apache gunships patrolled the skies above.
Questioned after the stunt, local merchants ridiculed the visit. The Associated Press quoted Jaafar Moussa Thamir, a 42-year-old who sells electrical appliances. “They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests,” he said. “Do they think that when they come and speak few Arabic words in a very bad manner it will make us love them? This country and its society have been destroyed because of them and I hope that they realized that during this visit.”
Thamir said “about 150 US soldiers and 20 Humvees” accompanied the delegation. “I didn’t care about him, I even turned my eyes away. What were they trying to tell us? They are just pretenders.”
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/apr2007/mccn-a04.shtml
Surreally, Rep. Pence went so far as to comment, “I candidly was not prepared to find a marketplace where thousands and thousands of Iraqis were moving about in regular everyday life like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”
Sen. Graham indicated that for him the Shorja visit was just another tourist adventure: “We went to the market and were warmly welcomed. I bought five rugs for five bucks.”
This farce has an element of derangement about it.
These are the conditions under which McCain and company took their little jaunt April 1: US soldiers entered the area before the American politicians, searched for explosives, sent informants among the people there, set up a perimeter and “secured” the neighborhood. Sharpshooters were deployed on rooftops.
The Republican delegation flew from the heavily-fortified Green Zone to a forward operating base in Baghdad, and then traveled by Humvee to the market. Once there, the politicians were accompanied by a “small army,” in the words of a Newsweek reporter, perhaps as many as 100 soldiers, while three Black Hawk helicopters and two Apache gunships patrolled the skies above.
Questioned after the stunt, local merchants ridiculed the visit. The Associated Press quoted Jaafar Moussa Thamir, a 42-year-old who sells electrical appliances. “They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests,” he said. “Do they think that when they come and speak few Arabic words in a very bad manner it will make us love them? This country and its society have been destroyed because of them and I hope that they realized that during this visit.”
Thamir said “about 150 US soldiers and 20 Humvees” accompanied the delegation. “I didn’t care about him, I even turned my eyes away. What were they trying to tell us? They are just pretenders.”
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/apr2007/mccn-a04.shtml
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Louisa McLennan and Agencies "Bomb kills 13 in Iraq including children" London Times, April 2, 2007:
"A suicide bomber who hid explosives under bags of flour in the back of a truck, has killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens more in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk."
...and now for the buried headline:
"The violence came a day after the American Senator John McCain led a Republican congressional delegation on a heavily guarded tour of a central Baghdad market and declared that a nearly seven-week-old security crackdown to pacify the capital is working."
"The attack comes days after the Iraqi government endorsed plans to relocate thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam Hussein’s campaign to force ethnic Kurds out of the city in an effort to undo one of the former dictator’s most enduring and hated policies."
"A suicide bomber who hid explosives under bags of flour in the back of a truck, has killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens more in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk."
...and now for the buried headline:
"The violence came a day after the American Senator John McCain led a Republican congressional delegation on a heavily guarded tour of a central Baghdad market and declared that a nearly seven-week-old security crackdown to pacify the capital is working."
"The attack comes days after the Iraqi government endorsed plans to relocate thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam Hussein’s campaign to force ethnic Kurds out of the city in an effort to undo one of the former dictator’s most enduring and hated policies."
For more information:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...
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