Senator McCain and Baghdad Security
Robert Fantina
May 24, 2007
Immediately after his recent, highly-publicized sojourn into Shorja, Baghdad’s central market, Republican Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain was asked about his remark that some areas of that city are safe for Americans to travel. “I just came from one,” he said, referring to Shorja. “I’ve been here many times over the years. Never have I been able to drive from the airport. Never have I been able to go out into the city as I was today.”
This rosy picture of a bustling market, replete with busy families shopping for the proffered wares, was echoed by Republican Representative Mike Pence, of Indiana, who accompanied Mr. McCain on this happy adventure. He said that Shorja resembled “…a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”
Never mind that the Senator and his three Congressional colleagues were escorted by more than 100 heavily armed soldiers in armored Humvees. Never mind the American attack helicopters that circled overhead during Mr. McCain’s hour-long visit. It is not worth mentioning that soldiers kept traffic from the area, doubtless causing untold inconvenience to Iraqis who actually wanted to shop, and not unwillingly participate in a photo op, but arrived in the area after the Americans closed it off. It is of no importance that sharpshooters were posted on rooftops, in plain site of the market’s customers, if not of the television cameras. And of course, the fact that Mr. McCain & Co. all wore bulletproof vests was simply a precaution.
When questioned about such security measures, which would render any war zone safe for whatever limited time they were implemented, Mr. McCain said it was all unnecessary; he would have gone into the market alone, but respected the wishes of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Mr. Petraeus recommended the security measures, but felt sufficiently confident as to allow the traveling Congressmen to remove their helmets, at his discretion. Ah, safety indeed!
One wonders how Mr. McCain would characterize the words of Ali Jassim Faiyad, who owns a shop within Shorja. “The security procedures were abnormal,” said he. “They paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media.”
Mr. McCain later complained that Americans were not getting the full story of what is happening in Iraq. He praised the improving security conditions in Baghdad, pointing to his own, heavily guarded and carefully scripted visit there as evidence.
If the Americans are not getting the full story of this abominable war, it is not because the media is focusing only on the negative. A more complete picture would be seen if Americans were allowed, as ‘freedom of the press’ might indicate they would be, to see photographs of coffins carrying the war’s American victims. A clearer picture would be gleaned if America kept some tally of Iraqi dead; General Tommy Franks, who directed the infamous attack on Iraq’s population centers, said, “We don't do body counts.” Estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands; hardly a family in Iraq has not lost a loved one to Mr. Bush’s war.
One longs to ask Mr. McCain his opinion of this story from the Associated Press on April 10, a few days after his visit to Iraq: “A raging, daylong battle erupted in central Baghdad on Tuesday and four Iraqi soldiers were killed, 16 U.S. soldiers were wounded and a U.S. helicopter was hit by ground fire at the close of the second month of the massive security crackdown on the capital.” This was accompanied by a picture of a young boy retrieving schoolbooks after a rocket landed in his schoolyard, killing a 6-year-old. One desperately wishes that school had been protected by 100 armed solders, helicopters overhead and the rest of the contingent that the U.S. military felt Mr. McCain deserved.
Americans might have a clearer picture of the war, although not the one the Mr. McCain wants them to have, if they understood the cost of the war. The money thus far spent on this war could have been used to hire over seven million new public school teachers. It could have provided health insurance for nearly 250 million children for one year. Twenty million students could have received four-year scholarships at public institutions.
U.S. citizens could better understand this war if they could speak with the more than 3,000 American soldiers now lying in their graves as a result of their participation in America’s latest imperial atrocity. That not being possible, perhaps a conversation with grieving widows and widowers, parents, siblings and children might suffice. Hearing of unendurable heartbreak, shattered dreams, or the longing for the never-to-occur return of a loved one may help many Americans better understand Mr. Bush’s war. Or a chat with the tens of thousands of wounded veterans, exhausted and damaged from fighting in Iraq and now fighting an indifferent bureaucracy for much needed health care, may help to clarify the situation.
If Americans would simply remember that Mr. Bush said that U.S. security was in almost immediate peril because of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and then realize that no such weapons were found during months of U.N. searches or four years of American occupation, they would better understand the war.
Of course, it is not the war that Mr. McCain wants understood, but the security situation in Baghdad. Perhaps he could return to that city and speak to the parents who must now bury their 6-year-old child, the one who died in the schoolyard on April 10. One feels confident that they could enlighten Mr. McCain and the rest of the world about the security situation in Baghdad.
This rosy picture of a bustling market, replete with busy families shopping for the proffered wares, was echoed by Republican Representative Mike Pence, of Indiana, who accompanied Mr. McCain on this happy adventure. He said that Shorja resembled “…a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”
Never mind that the Senator and his three Congressional colleagues were escorted by more than 100 heavily armed soldiers in armored Humvees. Never mind the American attack helicopters that circled overhead during Mr. McCain’s hour-long visit. It is not worth mentioning that soldiers kept traffic from the area, doubtless causing untold inconvenience to Iraqis who actually wanted to shop, and not unwillingly participate in a photo op, but arrived in the area after the Americans closed it off. It is of no importance that sharpshooters were posted on rooftops, in plain site of the market’s customers, if not of the television cameras. And of course, the fact that Mr. McCain & Co. all wore bulletproof vests was simply a precaution.
When questioned about such security measures, which would render any war zone safe for whatever limited time they were implemented, Mr. McCain said it was all unnecessary; he would have gone into the market alone, but respected the wishes of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Mr. Petraeus recommended the security measures, but felt sufficiently confident as to allow the traveling Congressmen to remove their helmets, at his discretion. Ah, safety indeed!
One wonders how Mr. McCain would characterize the words of Ali Jassim Faiyad, who owns a shop within Shorja. “The security procedures were abnormal,” said he. “They paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media.”
Mr. McCain later complained that Americans were not getting the full story of what is happening in Iraq. He praised the improving security conditions in Baghdad, pointing to his own, heavily guarded and carefully scripted visit there as evidence.
If the Americans are not getting the full story of this abominable war, it is not because the media is focusing only on the negative. A more complete picture would be seen if Americans were allowed, as ‘freedom of the press’ might indicate they would be, to see photographs of coffins carrying the war’s American victims. A clearer picture would be gleaned if America kept some tally of Iraqi dead; General Tommy Franks, who directed the infamous attack on Iraq’s population centers, said, “We don't do body counts.” Estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands; hardly a family in Iraq has not lost a loved one to Mr. Bush’s war.
One longs to ask Mr. McCain his opinion of this story from the Associated Press on April 10, a few days after his visit to Iraq: “A raging, daylong battle erupted in central Baghdad on Tuesday and four Iraqi soldiers were killed, 16 U.S. soldiers were wounded and a U.S. helicopter was hit by ground fire at the close of the second month of the massive security crackdown on the capital.” This was accompanied by a picture of a young boy retrieving schoolbooks after a rocket landed in his schoolyard, killing a 6-year-old. One desperately wishes that school had been protected by 100 armed solders, helicopters overhead and the rest of the contingent that the U.S. military felt Mr. McCain deserved.
Americans might have a clearer picture of the war, although not the one the Mr. McCain wants them to have, if they understood the cost of the war. The money thus far spent on this war could have been used to hire over seven million new public school teachers. It could have provided health insurance for nearly 250 million children for one year. Twenty million students could have received four-year scholarships at public institutions.
U.S. citizens could better understand this war if they could speak with the more than 3,000 American soldiers now lying in their graves as a result of their participation in America’s latest imperial atrocity. That not being possible, perhaps a conversation with grieving widows and widowers, parents, siblings and children might suffice. Hearing of unendurable heartbreak, shattered dreams, or the longing for the never-to-occur return of a loved one may help many Americans better understand Mr. Bush’s war. Or a chat with the tens of thousands of wounded veterans, exhausted and damaged from fighting in Iraq and now fighting an indifferent bureaucracy for much needed health care, may help to clarify the situation.
If Americans would simply remember that Mr. Bush said that U.S. security was in almost immediate peril because of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and then realize that no such weapons were found during months of U.N. searches or four years of American occupation, they would better understand the war.
Of course, it is not the war that Mr. McCain wants understood, but the security situation in Baghdad. Perhaps he could return to that city and speak to the parents who must now bury their 6-year-old child, the one who died in the schoolyard on April 10. One feels confident that they could enlighten Mr. McCain and the rest of the world about the security situation in Baghdad.