Thursday, April 05, 2007
Editorial: 'Straight Talk Express' goes straight over a cliff
Sen. McCain denied reality with a ridiculous photo-op in a Baghdad market. Shame on the man who once prided himself on telling it like it is.
From the RoundTable blog
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Sen. John McCain took a pleasant stroll through a Baghdad market to prove that Americans aren't getting the full picture about the "improving" security situation in Iraq's capital.
"Things are better. There are encouraging signs," McCain said in a press conference after the April Fools' Day visit. The press conference was held in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Some Iraqis beg to differ. Karim Abdullah, a 37-year-old textile merchant, said the visit by McCain and other members of Congress wasn't exactly a reflection of reality.
"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."
Actually, there were about 100 American soldiers in the market, along with three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships hovering above. American snipers prowled the rooftops.
McCain and the other visiting dignitaries removed their helmets, but kept their flak jackets on.
Not exactly the equivalent of a stroll around the Roanoke City Market.
And so the presidential candidate who once boasted of riding the "Straight Talk Express" has been exposed as a ridiculous Pollyanna, desperate to prove that some Baghdad neighborhoods are safe and blind to the actual truth exposed by his visit.
For some inexplicable reason, McCain is staking his political career on his unwavering support for President Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq. And so he has joined the president and others in the administration in making ridiculously overconfident and optimistic statements that defy the reality of the situation in Iraq.
Perhaps it is only possible to wholeheartedly support what is happening in Iraq through the dark tint of rose-colored glasses.
But in so doing, McCain has sacrificed the last drop of credibility in what was once a rather deep well.
