McCain Visit Angers Some Iraqis
Merchants At Oft-Bombed Market Say Heavily Guarded Tour Doesn't Reflect Reality
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Has Baghdad Become Safer?
Iraq's government reduced the Baghdad curfew by two hours, saying the security situation has improved since the crackdown in February. But locals seem to think otherwise. Martin Seemungal reports.
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Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., insists a U.S.-Iraqi security plan is working. (AP Photo/Sabah Arar)
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Girls in school uniforms lie at a hospital bed in Kirkuk, Iraq, on April 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Emad Matti)
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A medic helps a wounded man in Kirkuk, Iraq, 180 miles north of Baghdad, April 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Emad Matti)
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Jaafar Moussa Thamir, a 42-year-old who sells electrical appliances at the Shorja market that the Republican congressmen visited on Sunday, said the delegation greeted some fellow vendors with Arabic phrases but he was not impressed.
"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."
Leading a congressional delegation to Baghdad's oldest market over the weekend, Sen. McCain praised the safety of the city since the American troop surge, reports Martin Seemungal for CBS News.
But according to someone who was actually with the delegation, that sense of security required a massive military operation: dozens of U.S soldiers, snipers, and helicopters hovering overhead.
The shopkeepers were back Monday, adds Seemungal, but they confirmed that Sen. McCain's delegation could never have come here without heavy security.
McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said he was "cautiously optimistic" after riding with other members of a Republican congressional delegation from Baghdad's airport Sunday in armored vehicles under heavy guard to visit Shorja.
The market has been hit by bombings including a February attack that killed 137 people. The delegation said the trips were proof that security was improving in the capital.
McCain acknowledged a difficult task lies ahead in Iraq, but he insisted a U.S.-Iraqi security plan was working, citing a recent drop in execution-style sectarian killings, the establishment of security posts throughout the city and Sunni tribal efforts against al Qaeda in the western Anbar province.
"These and other indicators are reason for cautious, very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy," the Arizona senator said.
The congressmen, who wore body armor during their hour-long shopping excursion at the Shorja market, said they were touched by the resilience and warmth of the Iraqi people, some of whom would not take money for their souvenirs.
The delegation was accompanied by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and followed his lead in taking off their helmets as they bought souvenirs and drank tea.
"I didn't care about him, I even turned my eyes away," Thamir said. "We are being killed by the dozens every day because of them. What were they trying to tell us? They are just pretenders."
Karim Abdullah, a 37-year-old textile merchant, said the congressmen were kept under tight security and accompanied by dozens of U.S. troops.
"They were laughing and talking to people as if there was nothing going on in this country or at least they were pretending that they were tourists and were visiting the city's old market and buying souvenirs," he said. "To achieve this, they sealed off the area, put themselves in flak jackets and walked in the middle of tens of armed American soldiers."
But Abdullah applauded the congressmen for venturing out of the heavily guarded Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies as well as Iraqi government offices.
"Although these U.S. officials were using this visit for their propaganda to tell the Americans 'we are gaining progress here, don't worry,' it left a kind of good impression with some of us," he said. "They are at least better than Iraqi officials who never venture out their Green Zone to talk to normal people and see their problems. I hope that this visit will encourage Iraqi officials to leave their fortified houses inside the Green Zone."
McCain and fellow Republicans Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana and Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona traveled Monday to Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad that also is part of the security crackdown to which President Bush has committed some 30,000 extra troops.
The congressmen met with provincial police as well as Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, who is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Anbar, the military said in a statement issued Tuesday.
In other developments:
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See all 390 CommentsI think that as usual, CBSNews, headed by chipmunk Couric, with her Democratic MoveOn.Org credentials looked for an Iraqui or two after McCain's visit to spout hate at us.
Maybe its true - but they NEVER look for those who hate the terrorists and ask them questions. Just shrilling for Botox Nan as usual.
You would have thought CBSNews had learned its lesson after they jettisoned their Tex Demo Rather and his paid party hack stooge Mary Mapes. But Nah, business as usual.
But you won't hear or see them decry the rising Anti-Semitism in the world. Gee, I wonder why?
"The fact is that the United States military answers to one commander-in-chief in the White House, not 535 commanders-in-chief on Capitol Hill. We expect the House and the Senate to meet the needs of our military on time, in full, and with no strings attached." - D*ick Cheney
Somebody send this decrepit Nazi a copy of the Constitution:
Article I, Section 8:
"Congress shall have the Power...To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress..."
Now McCain would like the American public to drink the Neocon Koolaid again with his staged fairy story about how wonderful it is to shop in Baghdad. Go ahead Pubbies! Put him up for Prez--Hilly and Obama will kick his a$$!
Maybe its true - but they NEVER look for those who hate the terrorists and ask them questions. Just shrilling for Botox Nan as usual.
What is wrong with you people? Why do fascist insist on attacking anyone who doesn't spout the party line? It's Embarrassing!! There are what? 20 or so pure Nazi sites you can access with great ease and hear nothing but what you want to hear but NO! You Swastika totten morons want to prevent the rest of us from hearing what this person said and what really happened in Iraq. You are now and have always been losers. Why? You can't adjust. If it's not the way you and your brain have things planned you can't figure out how to deal with it.
and no matter how long we stay...THE TRUTH OF THAT COMMENT CAN NEVER BE ERASED --WE ARE HEROS AND SAVIORS OF IRAQ ONLY IN OUR OWN MINDS. IN REALITY, WE ARE A SCOURGE...A NOSY, DANGEROUS, BUSYBODY WHO THINKS WHEN WE WANT SOMETHING--THERE IS NO PRICE TO HIGH FOR OTHERS TO PAY TO GIVE IT TO US. (Iraqis never asked for Democracy or Freedom and sure as hell never asked for the bombs, WP, torture and mayhem our invasion caused.)
Posted by Superpatr898 at 08:43 AM : Apr 03, 2007
Maybe it is hard to decry a cause to an effect. With Israelis killing scores of Palestinians and Lebanese (and Americans providing the bombs while claiming to 'stay out of it) there is no small wonder that both Anti Semitism and Anti-Americanism is on the rise. It could be commented on (and has been) but frankly, we are the authors of this very bad book, now you complain about the review?
Why do you insist on ranting about Nazis when you and your friends like bluestarbigot and grazinggoat are the true Jew-baiters and America haters here.
Go back to your padded cell and straightjacket like a nice little looney schiz should. The stuff is dribbling from your mouth, just like your brains did decades ago.
There is no place in Iraq that an American can walk without being heavily armed and in great numbers. Period.
Drink some more Kool-Aid Johnny! You will never be elected Prez.
What a gaffe!!
Bush is planning to veto the funding bill for the troops and expects the American people to believe it is for some reason other than his ego!! LOL!!
Listen carefully, Chimp!!
If you veto the funding bill for the troops it is on YOUR BACK!!
The American people will no longer allow you to act like a spoiled child and place the blame elsewhere!!
Your 'Monkey-Boy' legacy will be:
1. You started an illegal and immoral war by lying to Congress and the American people.
2. You refused to support the troops after you threw them into this illegal and immoral war, by stopping funding for the troops.
Could it be that these Palestinians are terrorists, and ditto for the Marine killers of Hizbullah.
But hey, the MoveOn.Org paid hacks must be "evenhanded" ala Howie Schicklgruber Dean or the Nazi collaborator Soros.
Or their botox pin-up babe, the female Dorian Grey aka Nancy Pelosi.
Remember, if the Israelis really, really wanted to wipe out the roachistinians especially after all of the genocidal bombings and Arafat's violations of peace agreements, they could have done so in a heartbeat. Then what would our Nazi and Traitor little roaches here say - oh, but of course, the Jooz are no better than the Nazis.
Which is what you are - those of you who decry Israeli response to Islamonazi terror.
Of course not one of you would ever go to Darfur and see the real results of what your friends do. Too much like reality.
Sounds real safe in Bagdad. What about your walk around town John?
McCain is a has-been and probably suffering from dementia. Lying bugger wants to wear the Crown but doesn't realize he's yesterday's story.
Only judeofacist, fear-mongering, bigot clowns like superPATRIOTEER would believe such nonsense.
Stay in the ME John, the situation is so good now - and invite all the hymies to colonize Iraq instead of Palestine.
Posted by toldyouso21
The bad book - as you aptly call it, has been in the writing for a long time - Chilean dictatorships, Argentinian, Nicaragua, Honduras, Palestine, Lebanon, etc.
Hundreds of thousands gave their innocent blood, millions suffered, to write the pages of this book of Domination.
Until we see our true strength is not the sword - but Justice - the writing will continue....
Posted by Superpatr898
Darfur? No, patrioteer, just go to your real home, which is not America - but israel. Go!
You can kill poor innocent Palestinian children without worry.
I heard that they had a number of heavily armed helicopters flying overhead and that they completely sealed-off the markets ... before they let McCain in with a hoard of body-guards...
Another meaningless arrow in a the quiiver of cheap rhetorical devices used to condemn anyone, liberal or otherwise, who's not a kool aid drinker.
Also, Superpatr898, you should probably look up the meaning of the word "genocidal"...I don't think it means what you think it means. And the way you toss it around, along with your idiot cliched Nazi references, demeans and belittles the memory of those who actually died at the hands of real Nazis.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml
We lose 8 soldiers from Ft. Drum alone this weekend and soldiers had to be tasked to protect McCain. Sickening!
Bu$h is a liar.
McCain should not only drop out of the presidential race, he should resign from the US Senate.
Wasting US tax dollars on a propaganda campaign trip is probably illegal. Maybe he should be prosecuted for fraud.
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McCain was wearing a large adult diaper and ... he filled it ....
He really should be prosecuted, he has to be held to a much higher standard. And, he should be dishonorably discharged from his reserve unit.
It appears that whole group was defrauding the US government (stealing tax dollars).
Even the everyday man on the street saw right thru this. The stupidity of our leaders amazes me.
What if the rich mayor of anyrichcityUSA paid a visit to the slum side of town for a photo opt prior to election time? Do you think this would convince the citizens that he gave a *** about them? Absolutely amazing. Soon they will all...republicans and democrate be visiting New Orleans with bells on.
Posted by kcstan11 at 09:50 AM : Apr 03, 2007
Wonder what poor soldier got tasked with changing that diaper!
Behold your new president wannabe.
Another liar and a phony who wants to keep us into the war for ever.
Posted by nikosk1 at 09:53 AM : Apr 03, 2007
yep---and 1st BDG out of Ft. Drum is returning to Iraq in June....having just returned in Aug of '07---only 10 an 1/2 months later!
The facts remain inconclusive.
US and Iraqi Military and Police deaths appear to be up -- Expected based on the activity -- positive is when the spike reduces and remains down.
Civilian deaths appear to be up - disappointing it appears the problems have relocated
Alledged rogue police retaliation in the northern town - unfortunately predictable -- this needs to be dealt with appropriately or the situation will deteriorate.
Overcrowded jails - expected - presents potential for a deteriorating situation -- if expedient determination of the need for incarceraton for individuals is not included.-- if the facilities are not adequately protected. -- if abuses (inmates or guards) happens internally.
This activity has significant risk-- planning and execution must improve over that which we have seen to date.
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Posted by Superpatr898 at 08:43 AM : Apr 03, 2007
Why are almost all remaining bush supporters, apparently, Jewish? And why do they consistently use the worn-out charge of anti-Semitism against all who criticize the Iraqi fiasco. They make it appear that Israel is the only reason we are in Iraq.
I wonder where they got such an idea (sarcasm intended).
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