John McCain (R-Douchebag) says Iraq is "perfectly safe"

[Grimmlok]

The furor is growing over John McCain's repeated statements to four media outlets (i.e., it wasn't just a slip of the tongue, McCain actually believes this stuff) over the past 24 hours that there are numerous "safe neighborhoods" in Baghdad where Americans can walk around in total safety. McCain even went one step further, in an effort to explain his support for the "surge," McCain lied about our commanding general in Iraq, General Petraeus - and Petraeus has now called him on it.

More from the DNC:

John McCain is in Florida today after igniting a flurry of controversy by claiming on Bill Bennet's talk show that, "there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today." [Bill Bennett's Morning in America, 3/26/07] Asked about McCain's blatant attempt to spin the facts on the ground, CNN's Baghdad correspondent, Michael Ware, responded with a quick "No" and said, "no way on earth can a westerner, particularly an American, stroll any street of this capital of more than five million people...You barely would last 20 minutes out there. I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."

McCain refused to back down from his comments, however, telling NBC's Today Show from Orlando this morning that there are "many signs of success...neighborhoods in Baghdad that are largely certainly much more secure," and telling ABC's Good Morning America that "you look at facts on the ground...there are neighborhoods that are calm." McCain's sprinkling of pixie dust in response to ABC came on a question about whether he has "to be looking at Iraq through rose-colored glasses to see progress" when one hundred people have been killed in "just the last day, [in] the same town the president used last year as an example of freedom taking hold." [NBC Today, 3/28/07; ABC's Good Morning America, 3/28/07]

"John McCain seems to think that walking through Baghdad is as easy as his march away from campaign finance reform and his image as a so-called 'maverick,'" said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "With his rhetoric coming under fire, McCain had better hope the Double Talk Express got the armor that our troops have been forced to do without. Misrepresenting the facts on the ground in Iraq might be the latest tactic for McCain's do-anything-to-win campaign, but after hearing the same thing from the Bush Administration for four years, the American people would no doubt prefer a new direction."

Let me just add that these are the reasons McCain gave for supporting the surge. And his reasons are wrong. Is this the kind of quality, or lack thereof, that Americans want to see in a future war president? A guy who makes critical war decisions based on things that simply aren't true?

UPDATE:

Following up on Joe's post, earlier, here's General Barry McCaffrey (ret.) in today's Washington Post:

"[N]o Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat, reporter, foreign NGO [nongovernmental organization], nor contractor can walk the streets of Baghdad, nor Mosul, nor Kirkuk, nor Basra, nor Tikrit, nor Najaf, nor Ramadi, without heavily armed protection."

FURTHER UPDATE:

The Senator said yesterday, regarding Iraq, "The consequences of failure are catastrophic because if we come home, bin Laden and Zarqawi, they are going to follow us." Um, Senator . . . Zarqawi is dead. Not only is he dead, but the Senator used his death, which occurred nearly ten months ago, to smear those who advocated redeployment: "[Zarqawi's death] has got to be viewed as a success," he said. "It's got to be viewed as perhaps a bit of a rebuke against those who are advocating that we cut and run out of Iraq."

AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Hey McCain.. if it's so safe, why don't you go for a stroll in full dress uniform, without armed guard, in one of these neighborhood paradises?

[greysfang]

It is safe...from a killer blizzard. Dumbass.

[Mr. Authority]

You know I've noticed something off about McCain. He's been really incoherent and deluisonal (more than ever) about what he thinks and beleives. Plus he's gotten really old-looking and bloated in the past 5 years. Guess the stress is getting to him.

Such a shame. He had a moderate voice in the Republican party but now he's a Bush mouthpiece.

[Grimmlok]

His moderte image was a sham.. he made the pretense of going against the grain, but always voted pro Bush all the way.

Stupid douchebag. I wish he was still in that bamboo cell in Hanoi.

[greysfang]

I disagree that his moderate image was a sham. I lived in Arizona for several years and he was my Senator. He's always been pretty much a centrist, but I believe his flip-flopping the last 8 years is because he was ordered to toe the party line if he wants another chance at the presidency.

Not that I respect the waffling, because I don't. I just believe at heart he's pretty moderate.

[Grimmlok]

He's not a moderate from my experience of him, nor is he when he sells his soul to the reich-wing nutjobs and extremist twits in order to curry favor with the theocrats.

Also, his 'moderate' stance while in washington was crap.. he'd say a few things against some right-wing legislation, but always vote for it.

Remember that anti-torture bill he presentd, to look all maverick? It got passed, then Bush isued a signing statement saying he didn't have to obey it, and McCain didn't say one damn thing.

He just wants to LOOK centrist.

[buttmunch]

Hey McCain.. if it's so safe, why don't you go for a stroll in full dress uniform, without armed guard, in one of these neighborhood paradises?

You took the words right out of my mouth. If any of these morons think it's so safe, then they should put their money where their mouths are.

[pacific breeze]

Yeah, it's safe inside the Green Zone, which is the only place these idiots ever go.

[Born In A Brothel]

He needs to wake up and smell the qahwah.

The so called green zone was just hit on Tuesday, killing two Americans, a soldier and a contractor. Damn, they are now even telling people when they go outside within the confines to wear bullet proof vests.

[Dean James]

I love this, John McCain(R-Douchebag) means that he's a Republican and the entire state of Arizona is a douchebag.

[msdebagain]

i'd be happy to get someone to help him move there.