McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say

This is hysterical. Now even the stall holders at the market where McCain went on his publicity stunt are saying that he's wrong about security in Iraq.

“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!”

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

“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.”

McCain is looking even more ridiculous than when he first claimed it was possible for an American to stroll the streets of Baghdad drinking coffee.

It's the classic case of an inability to realise that you have overplayed your hand. He should have shut up and moved on. Now, by taking to Baghdad's streets - under the kind of protection that his original point inferred was unnecessary - he is simply coming across as the class clown.

When people search for where McCain's bid for the Republican nomination fell apart, this "stroll through Baghdad" has to be one of the defining moments.

It was not only ludicrous, pompous and an attempt to turn reality on it's head. It was actually quite dangerous! Even with that kind of back up...

John McCain. Plonker of the Month. And it's still only April the 3rd....

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Tags: John McCain, Baghdad, market stroll