It is all about the good news

Much has been made of John McCain’s shopping excursion to a Baghdad market as a public demonstration of the “progress” being made in Iraq. The outcome of this war and McCain’s Presidential ambitions are intertwined; more so than any other tier one Republican candidate. He needs Iraq to be perceived as, if not in fact, improving. If the other candidates force him to defend his support for a failed Iraq policy, his campaign is doomed and he knows it. So he and a few other Republican lawmakers staged a Potemkin Village photo-op and press conference, aided by no fewer that 100 soldiers complete with snipers and helicopter air cover. McCain could thus “prove” that US policy is working and the problem is not the chaos and sectarian violence but rather the press not covering the good news in Iraq.

"You read every day about suicide bombings, kidnappings, rocket attacks and other terrible acts. What we don't read about and what is new is a lot of the good news -- the drop in the murders in Baghdad, the establishment of security outposts throughout the city ... the deployment of additional Iraqi brigades to Baghdad," McCain said.

"These and other indicators are reasons for very cautious optimism about the effects of the new strategy," said the 70- year-old senator from Arizona, who has been a vocal critic in the past of the Bush administration's handling of the war.

"Just as we read about all the negative events in Iraq the American people must be aware of the positive developments under this new plan, and the media has a responsibility to report all aspects of what is taking place."

Take that media! Americans are against the war because you are not reporting enough propaganda good stories. All of which is complete bullshit and everyone knows it.

BAGHDAD - Iraqis in the capital said Tuesday that Sen. John McCain's account of a heavily guarded visit to a central market did not represent the current reality in Baghdad, with one calling it "propaganda."

[Snip]

Jaafar Moussa Thamir, a 42-year-old who sells electrical appliances at the Shorja market that the Republican congressmen visited on Sunday, said the delegation greeted some fellow vendors with Arabic phrases but he was not impressed.

"They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests," he said. "Do they think that when they come and speak few Arabic words in a very bad manner it will make us love them? This country and its society have been destroyed because of them and I hope that they realized that during this visit."

[Snip]

Karim Abdullah, a 37-year-old textile merchant, said the congressmen were kept under tight security and accompanied by dozens of U.S. troops.

"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."

Like I said, they aren’t fooling anyone. This is what Iraq is like when you do not have the US Army at your disposal.

BAGHDAD, April 2 -- A suicide truck bomber rammed into a police station compound near an elementary school in the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing 15 people, including schoolgirls, and wounding scores of others, witnesses and police reported.

At the main hospital in the city, the courtyard was filled with injured children in bloodstained blue uniforms, a Washington Post special correspondent reported from the scene. Many had their heads and arms wrapped in bandages. Some clutched bloodstained books. A baby girl lay dead in the emergency room from shrapnel that had torn through her body. Doctors and nurses broke into tears because they couldn't save her.

Yeah, progress…