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McCain’s Trip to Baghdad

By Michael Goldfarb
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When John McCain said that “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today,” CNN’s Michael Ware responded “I don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.” Then McCain went to Iraq and walked through those neighborhoods. He told reporters

“After landing at the airport we drove from the airport into various parts of the city. We stopped at Bab Sharqi market where we spent well over an hour shopping and talking with the local people,” said McCain.
“Things are better and there are encouraging signs. I have 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,” he boasted.

But McCain didn’t stroll the streets of Baghdad by himself. Here’s how the New York Times reported it:

In sometimes testy comments to reporters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, Mr. McCain said the American public was not receiving “the full picture about what’s happening,” and he described the delegation’s visit to a downtown market where scores of people have died this year in multiple car bombings and other attacks. There, the members of Congress said, they strolled around, haggled with merchants and drank tea.
But the outing was far from carefree. The delegation traveled in a convoy of armored military vehicles and was accompanied by a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers. The politicians wore body armor while they shopped.
“We had protection today,” Mr. McCain acknowledged when pressed by reporters.

They wore body armor! They went out with “heavily armed soldiers!” They had protection! Iraq must be a disaster. Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum had this to say:

Note to conservatives: if you decide to just ignore John McCain’s laughable trip to Baghdad, I understand. There’s really not much you can do except hope for a new presidential scandal to take it mercifully off the front page.
But if you do decide to post about it, do you really think you can get away with pretending that the whole trip went smoothly and the press is merely being unfair in its reporting? And if you do think that, what does it say about your opinion of your readership?

Drum’s snide tone is fairly representative of the left’s reaction to McCain’s trip. But really, how was McCain supposed to go out in Baghdad. Isn’t the press being a bit unfair when it “presses” McCain on the subject of personal security? The man may well be the Republican nominee for the presidency. Any high-ranking official that goes out in Baghdad would have similar protection. When President Bush makes public appearances in this country–say to throw out the first pitch at a ball game–he, too, wears body armor. When President Clinton came to speak at Princeton while I was a student there, there were sharpshooters on the roof of my dorm. There were dozens of security personnel–for an event at Princeton. Of course, there are places that don’t require so much security. Nancy Pelosi received a “warm welcome” in Syria. And if McCain were so inclined, he could probably travel to Iran or North Korea with limited security as well. The streets in those countries are safe–that’s how police states work. Many on the left were calling McCain’s wearing a bullet-proof vest a Dukakis-in-a-tank moment. How absurd. Nancy Pelosi gets a free pass for wearing a burka*, but John McCain is supposed to go out on the streets of Baghdad without a vest? I have a very high opinion of our readership, and I can say with no hesitation that the press is being profoundly unfair in its reporting of McCain’s trip. * Readers point out that the Speaker was in fact wearing a hijab.

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