John McCain: Lying or just delusional?

(Via Stephen Elliot, Huffington Post)

John McCain recently walked through a Baghdad market where he had tea and afterward declared that America wasn't getting the full story on all the good stuff that was happening in Iraq. One of the reasons for that is probably that it's not safe for journalists to leave their hotels. And also, many educated Iraqis have left Iraq.

Further, freelance Iraqi journalists are afraid to work with westerners because they don't want to be beheaded by Iraqis or shot by American troops. The same for translators and those that really opened their arms to the Americans, as documented in George Packer's recent article in the New Yorker.
But what was really absurd, as everyone knows at this point, is that McCain traveled with 100 heavily armed soldiers, attack helicopters circling overhead. So yeah, the world's a safer place when you have your own mobile Green Zone. Every foot he walked in Baghdad (wearing a bullet proof vest) probably cost Americans $10,000 for security. Or more. If you need that much security, and a bullet proof vest, then things probably aren't going so well where you are. Hence, all the bad news out of Iraq.

I wonder what John McCain logic would look like in real life:

The millionaire walks in to a convenience store and proclaims to the clerk, "We are rich."

"Actually, I make minimum wage and I don't have health insurance," the clerk tells him.

"No," the millionaire insists. "I am rich, therefore you are rich." The millionaire buys a bottle of Gatorade, paying with exact change, and leaves.

The mayor walks into the Chicago Ida B. Wells housing projects and declares them safe.

"But three people were shot here yesterday," he's told.

"Where I live," he responds, "No one was shot yesterday."

These people are so fucking insane. And I guess they feel the American public is stupid enough to swallow this bullshit. I changed my mind. McCain is lying and delusional!

And What did the people who actually live and work there have to say? (From the New York Times):

BAGHDAD, April 2 — A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.

“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!”

(SNIP)

“They paralyzed the market when they came,” Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.”

He added, “This will not change anything.”

(SNIP)

Several merchants said Monday that the Americans’ visit might have only made the market a more inviting target for insurgents.

“Every time the government announces anything — that the electricity is good or the water supply is good — the insurgents come to attack it immediately,” said Abu Samer, 49, who would give only his nickname out of concern for his safety.

But even though he was fearful of a revenge attack, he said, he could not afford to stay away from the market. This was his livelihood. “We can never anticipate when they will attack,” he said, his voice heavy with gloomy resignation. “This is not a new worry.”

So, not only are these politicos like McCain using these people we have devastated as props for photo ops, they are putting them in real danger. It's really sick.