“We Deride”, updated…
Though Ware is not mentioned by name, this AFP report (Jennie Matthew) confirms the behavior reported by Drudge. And it’s a piece of work in itself. I’m reprinting it in its entirety, as something tells me it may be “cleaned up” now that Instapundit has drawn it to the attention of a few hundred thousand readers;
Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record) boasted about shopping and chatting to Iraqis in a constantly bombed Baghdad market on Sunday, adamant that the US troop surge is paying off.
Making a lightning trip to Iraq, McCain and three fellow Republican congressmen told slightly incredulous journalists about their “deeply moving” downtown walkabout, sipping tea and chewing the fat with welcoming Iraqis.
“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.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Iraq during the last week, including 60 slaughtered in a similar Baghdad market on Thursday evening, as car and suicide bombers have continued to defy the new Iraqi-US security crackdown.
A security official told AFP earlier on Sunday that the Iraqi death toll was up 15 percent last month. US commanders openly admit there is no military solution to the lethal sectarian warfare, insurgency and rampant kidnapping.
Yet Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), who as a Senator enjoys a six-figure salary, boasted about spending five dollars in what is one of the most favoured bombing sites in Baghdad and infamous as a nest of criminals under Saddam Hussein.
“I brought five rugs for five bucks. People were engaging and just a few weeks ago, hundreds of people, dozens of people were killed in this same place,” said Graham.
On a trip blatantly directed at American voters, the senators were adamant that the new US crackdown was working and lashed out at Democrats for trying to force a US withdrawal and the media for not reporting the fuller picture.
“I’m not saying mission accomplished… it’s long and it’s hard. and it’s very, very difficult, very, very difficult task ahead of us,” said 70-year-old White House hopeful McCain, who was a prisoner in Hanoi during the Vietnam war.
Although the deployment of 80,000 Iraqi and US forces has seen a decline in sectarian execution-style killings, insurgents are increasingly taking their battle to other towns and cities.
“I studied warfare. I’m a student of history. If you control the capital city of a nation you have a significant advantage,” countered McCain as one reporter giggled at the back.
“The American people are not getting the full picture of what’s happening here. They’re not getting the full picture of the drop in murders,” he hammered, reeling off a list of positives he felt the press were ignoring.
“The most deeply moving thing for me was to mix and mingle unfettered among ordinary Iraqis and a seemingly endless street market. To stop, to have chai tea, to haggle over the price of a rug,” chimed in Representative Mike Pence (news, bio, voting record).
Yet journalists openly scoffed afterwards at what they considered a public awareness exercise secured on the streets by massive US security.
The congressmen admitted to “having protection”, driving in armoured Humvees and keeping their body armour on, although they were encouraged by accompanying US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus to remove their helmets.
McCain’s visit came a week after he told Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio show that there were parts of Baghdad where they could take a walk, in comments derided by a CNN journalist based in Iraq as a “Neverland”.
The Democratic-led US Congress last week conditioned fresh funding for the war to withdrawing most US combat forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008.
“If you set a deadline now, it will undercut everything positive that’s going on,” said Graham. “The president will veto any bill with a deadline.”
McCain, who was last week placed well behind his main rival, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in the race for the 2008 Republican nomination, has long supported the war and argued that more soldiers were needed.
Unbelievable. (Emphasis mine.)
“who as a Senator enjoys a six-figure salary”
Maybe he should be earning the same amount or more as a talking MSM head?
“On a trip blatantly directed at American voters”
And the news is not?
If the media persists this way, there WILL be civil unrest in America.
So-called “journalist” beware, YOUR head may end up on stick.
For the record, that report is from AFP, not AP as stated.
Thanks for catching that.
The report states that the US military ‘openly admits that there is no military solution to the lethal sectarian warfare, insurgency and rampant kidnapping’.
Of course there isn’t a military solution to sectarianism (tribalism). The people themselves have to reject tribalism and adversarial hatred of ‘the other tribe’ and move into a civic and collaborative political mode.
But the military presence is required in the beginning and because Iran in particular is promoting and enabling this sectarian fighting.
The other arab states have to confront Iran and insist that it stop promoting and enabling violence in Iraq.
As for the MSM – let the blogs take over factual reporting and leave the MSM disappear in their fictional irrelevance.
Blogs are more important, more relevant with each passing week.
Can we realy trust the Communist News Network and its lie a day news service and BIG BAD WOLF BLITZER
What is quite amazing is that despite the mis and dis-information by CNN and the MSM the public still seems to understand the big picture and the long term issues faced.
Bush is like a lot of action oriented people as opposed to verbal, he is not a great communicator. Clinton had high verbal skills but low decisive or action skills.
Maybe the criterion for the next President will be someone who will be able to deliver on both high decisiveness and high communication skills. Meanwhile the American people can still grasp what is going on in the ME:
A Bloomberg poll last month found that 61% of Americans believe withholding funding for the war is a bad idea, while only 28% believe it is a good idea.
According to a March USA Today/Gallup poll, 61% of Americans oppose “denying the funding needed to send any additional troops to Iraq.”
That poll also showed that only 20% of Americans want to withdraw the troops immediately.
…”That poll also showed that only 20% of Americans want to withdraw the troops immediately.”…
Guess they polled 10 Americans, two of whom were Hillary and Sindy.
*
How do you think they’ll report this?
One person has died and another person is critically wounded
after a shooting at the CNN Center complex in Atlanta.
Witnesses reported seeing a woman being shot in the face
following an argument by escalators near the main entrance
to the complex.
*
There is a number of things wrong with Iraq right now. Also, I have been a vocal critic of foreign control over US external policy. But the MSM in the US has blatantly shown that they are not nationalists nor take their orders or generate their spirit from their nation of residence.
Aaron, actually even Hillary would not be for pulling out. There are still 40,000 troops in Korea and there will be at least 40,000 troops in Iraq 10 years from now.
ET says “The people themselves have to reject tribalism and adversarial hatred of ‘the other tribe’ and move into a civic and collaborative political mode.”
Yes and this is where I find it difficult to have a debate with the blame Bush crowd with their anti-Iraq War stance. While they always admit Saddam was a bad guy, they quickly jump to “ but he was not religious, not part of the Islamic movement, and now that he is gone things are worse because it has slipped into (near) civil war … Bush has made it worse”.
That is essentially the position that Michael Ware and his fellow journalists would take. They assume that the end game should be realized by a battle to take out Saddam. Because Iraq has not quickly turned into Switzerland with its neat little Cantons, the MSM sneers that the new chaos is somehow the fault of the USA. It’s our fault that the various tribes have not rejected violence and moved into a more civil method of solving problems.
However, that Iraq is verging on civil war instead of being under a dictator isn’t our fault … the Iraqis themselves have to deal with uprisings. All societies have to deal with that from time to time, just the way Trudeau called upon the War Measures Act to end terrorism and stop the creation of an un-elected parallel regime in Quebec wanting to bring in separatist rule.
Michael Ware is unfit for journalism as are about 90% of the lame hacks on the airwaves and in print. They are either smirking baffoons or dumb as rocks or both. I’m down to two commercial products now, FOX news and the Wall Street Journal(best editorials). With my aging brain, I taking fish oil and being more conscious of neurotoxins. The MSM is killing brain cells.
This is priceless(via Drudge), Lou Dobbs, the anti-free market hack on CNN has taken a position of “special contributor” on CBS, already saddled with and dying under the Katie Couric hack, proving yet again that rather than change the content, recruit new faces with fresher ideas, the MSM is a perpetual hack employment service.
cnn are playing to the bad guys, as is usual.
There never was and never has been an objective news source. That’s not humanly possible so it’s best to be upfront about your bias. But I don’t think you’re bothered about bias. If you were, you’d complain about Fox at least some of the time. What disgusts you is a bias other than your own.
Penny yes that is interesting about Lou Dobbs , I think he got his ideas from Maude Barlow and Mel Hertig , not exactly our best knowledge based exports.
Interestingly I had noticed that CNN has a Glen Beck on to offset Dobbs lately. Beck is a wee bit hyped for my taste but he is definitely right wing. So CNN investors must be driving this change. Therefore I wonder if this Michael Ware thing will get the attention of CNN management that it deserves?
Also an entrepreneur Sam Zell just took over the Chicago Tribune.
Yes the editorial and opinion pages of the Wall St Journal are absolutely the best on the planet.
So maybe we are getting somewhere with “balanced”.
“If the media persists this way, there WILL be civil unrest in America.
So-called “journalist” beware, YOUR head may end up on a stick.”
I trust someone has notified the police of this threat. (It parallels the threat to stephen harper that had everyone here in a froth awhile ago.)
Get a life Exile, you and I and the rest don’t take your comments seriously.
Believe me.
A very long non-retraction of a bogus story.
Interesting, we shall see, nomdenet, as per wikipedia Sam has given more donations to Republicans and is a strong Israel supporter. It could bring balance back to that miserable lefty hack newspaper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Zell
NWS(Fox) stock is moving in on an all time high, the WSJ shows a profit against the trend, while the NYT’s is fading finacially, FOX ate CNN’s lunch on the cable networks in a few short years. Capitalism is a wonderful process if left unfettered. BS talks, money walks as they say.
So call the cops on Doug, exile, we’ll get back to you, yawn, in the morning. (You are about as lame and hyperbolic as the MSM you watch.)
Since when did a second, published source for a story (albeit differing in the details) become redefined as a “retraction”?
exile said: “I trust someone has notified the police of this threat.”
Call the cops yourself if your worried you spineless wonder.
“Please officer protect me. You big strong stormtrooper you. I’m too weak and gutless to ignore an anoymous internet posting.”
Fukk off loser.
Rattfuc: “Get a life Exile, you and I and the rest don’t take your comments seriously.
Believe me.”
john: “exile said: “I trust someone has notified the police of this threat.”
Call the cops yourself if your worried you spineless wonder.
“Please officer protect me. You big strong stormtrooper you. I’m too weak and gutless to ignore an anoymous internet posting.”
Fukk off loser.”
Recently, some people here notified the police about a similar (and equally serious) threat to Stephen Harper. I was suggesting a parallel and implying that there was a degree of inconsistency between the somewhat overwrought response to the comment about SH and the non-response to this one.
However, you present cogent and convincing arguments. Clearly, you have a well-informed and well-thought out analysis. There’s really no point in arguing with such a skilled and knowledgable debater.
People like Michael Ware are starting to be challenged and questioned – he doesn’t like it and this is how he reacts. We need more independent reporters in Iraq.
There is a great quote by a great guy – Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
The genius of America is that people over time really do think for themselves – and always – again, over time – will make the right decisions.
I think the dominance of tradional media (papers, TV) is waning big time – and it won’t be too soon for me.
I cannot believe that you people are so pig-headed as to continue to draw attention to your stupidity on this subject.
Drudge lied. McCain lied. You’re lying. And pathetic.
Keep up the good work.
“in comments derided by a CNN journalist”
“journalists openly scoffed afterwards”
Is it still CNN company policy to have it’s reporters “derisions” and “scoffs” vetted by rotting Sadam?
Kate, were you looking at Jose’s remark? He called it a non-retraction.
Exile, you’re right – John really is most eloquent, and unapologetically but slyly reveals just hint of homophobia. I’m as surprised as you are. Quite the reaction you stirred up suggesting that commenters here are reacting to a bias not quite in line with their own. Something, um… doth protest, uh… something or other.
Wow, crabgrass are you ever perceptive. I’m slyly homophobic. Are you certain you can’t read some racism into my posting too? How about some refernces to Hitler or the KKK?
I know, that’s what you lefty, MSM defending assholes fall back on when you’ve got nothing else.
No one depends on name calling, yet is more thin skinned than a journalist.
John, apologies if my remark was unfair. It was the phrase “you big strong stormtrooper, you” that looked a little conspicuous. What was it meant to convey?