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Michael Ware -- I wanna join his fan club!Few 'news' moments have delighted me so much as a segment on Wolf Blitzer's CNN "The Situation Room" (March 27) in which Michael Ware, a journalist who has been in Baghdad for many months, demolished visiting Senator John McCain's claims that the city was getting safer and better: hap-hap-happy Baghdad! Specifically, McCain claimed there were areas of the city in which Americans could now walk safely. The Senator illustrated this safety by strolling through a marketplace that had been secured and surrounded by the military and was being patrolled by helicopters overhead; army humvees escorted his casual stroll. According to one of the merchants in the market place, Jaafar Moussa Thamir, the delegation (including McCain) greeted some vendors with Arabic phrases but "They were just making fun of us and paid this visit just for their own interests. 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." Thamir added that "about 150 U.S. soldiers and 20 Humvees" accompanied the delegation.
Ware began his critique of McCain's claim of Baghdad's safety with the words, "Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I dont know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad." (Full transcript of segment attached below.)
The McCain camp (or at least one still-unnamed official) responded by leaking disinformation to the Drudge Report, in which it was asserted that Ware had viciously heckled McCain at a news conference in Baghdad. For good measure, (Also, based on one interview Ware had with Bill Maher, Drudge implied Ware was a drunk.) Problem is, the conference is on tape and Ware didn't even ask a question let alone 'dis' the Senator. McCain is just pissed that his high-profile photo-op -- upon which he pinned so much prestige and almost his reputation itself -- turned into a stink bomb. The incident has harmed his Presidential chances.
The desperate need for both McCain and Bush to recover credibility on their hap-hap-happy view of Baghdad went through my mind when I stumbled across the following item on MSNBC today: Iraqi government shortens Baghdad curfew. Officials cite improved security in allowing citizens to stay out until 10 p.m. What are the odds that pressure was brought to make an official announcement that seems to confirm McCain's claims? My assumption of a McCain link was strengthened by the photo accompanying the news announcement. Its caption: Gen. David Petraeus, left, and Sen. John McCain, second from left, visit the Shorga marketplace in Bagdad on Sunday. Let the dissembing sons-of-bitches walk the street like ordinary people and then I'll listen to what they have to say.
Ware began his critique of McCain's claim of Baghdad's safety with the words, "Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I dont know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad." (Full transcript of segment attached below.)
The McCain camp (or at least one still-unnamed official) responded by leaking disinformation to the Drudge Report, in which it was asserted that Ware had viciously heckled McCain at a news conference in Baghdad. For good measure, (Also, based on one interview Ware had with Bill Maher, Drudge implied Ware was a drunk.) Problem is, the conference is on tape and Ware didn't even ask a question let alone 'dis' the Senator. McCain is just pissed that his high-profile photo-op -- upon which he pinned so much prestige and almost his reputation itself -- turned into a stink bomb. The incident has harmed his Presidential chances.
The desperate need for both McCain and Bush to recover credibility on their hap-hap-happy view of Baghdad went through my mind when I stumbled across the following item on MSNBC today: Iraqi government shortens Baghdad curfew. Officials cite improved security in allowing citizens to stay out until 10 p.m. What are the odds that pressure was brought to make an official announcement that seems to confirm McCain's claims? My assumption of a McCain link was strengthened by the photo accompanying the news announcement. Its caption: Gen. David Petraeus, left, and Sen. John McCain, second from left, visit the Shorga marketplace in Bagdad on Sunday. Let the dissembing sons-of-bitches walk the street like ordinary people and then I'll listen to what they have to say.
Transcript of delightful segment from "The Situation Room" (March 27):
BLITZER: Sen. John McCain suggests that is crackdown is already working. I asked him about that in the last hour.
[BLITZER CLIP]: Here’s what you told Bill Bennett on his radio show on Monday. “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq.â€
Everything we hear if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you’re in trouble if you’re an American.
[McCAIN CLIP]: That’s where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media. But I know for a fact that much of the success we’re experiencing, including the ability of Americans in many parts. Not all, we have a long, long way to go. We’ve only got two of the five brigades here to go into some neighborhoods in Baghdad in a secure fashion.
BLIZTER: Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential candidate speaking here in The Situation Room within the past hour. Let’s go live to Baghdad right now. CNN’s Michael Ware is standing by. Michael, you’ve been there for four years, you’re walking around Baghdad on a daily basis. Has there been this improvement that Sen. McCain is speaking about?
WARE: Well, I’d certainly like to bring Sen. McCain up to speed if he ever gives me the opportunity. And if I have any difficulty hearing you right now Wolf, that’s because of the helicopters circling overhead and the gun battle that is blazing away just a few blocks down the road. Is Baghdad any safer? Sectarian violence, one particular type of violence, is down. But none of the American generals here on the ground have anything like Sen. McCain’s confidence. I mean, Sen. McCain’s credibility now on Iraq, which has been so solid to this point, is now being left out hanging to dry. To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.
And to think that Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain’s said this, I’ve spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There’s multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There’s attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one.
BLITZER: Sen. John McCain suggests that is crackdown is already working. I asked him about that in the last hour.
[BLITZER CLIP]: Here’s what you told Bill Bennett on his radio show on Monday. “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq.â€
Everything we hear if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you’re in trouble if you’re an American.
[McCAIN CLIP]: That’s where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media. But I know for a fact that much of the success we’re experiencing, including the ability of Americans in many parts. Not all, we have a long, long way to go. We’ve only got two of the five brigades here to go into some neighborhoods in Baghdad in a secure fashion.
BLIZTER: Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential candidate speaking here in The Situation Room within the past hour. Let’s go live to Baghdad right now. CNN’s Michael Ware is standing by. Michael, you’ve been there for four years, you’re walking around Baghdad on a daily basis. Has there been this improvement that Sen. McCain is speaking about?
WARE: Well, I’d certainly like to bring Sen. McCain up to speed if he ever gives me the opportunity. And if I have any difficulty hearing you right now Wolf, that’s because of the helicopters circling overhead and the gun battle that is blazing away just a few blocks down the road. Is Baghdad any safer? Sectarian violence, one particular type of violence, is down. But none of the American generals here on the ground have anything like Sen. McCain’s confidence. I mean, Sen. McCain’s credibility now on Iraq, which has been so solid to this point, is now being left out hanging to dry. To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.
And to think that Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain’s said this, I’ve spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There’s multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There’s attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one.
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