McCain Takes a Road Trip to Iraq

Getting to show all of us how Commander-in-Chiefish he can be, just like Georgie Boy, he also flies into Baghdad unannounced. Hell, they didn’t even tell the Iraqi government he was there, until he was there. Isn’t that so romantic?

“We were informed that John McCain landed in Iraq Sunday morning,” Ali al-Moussawi, an official in the office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told the AP. “A meeting will take place with the Iraqi government.”

Sen. John McCain and the McCainettes (Sens. Lindsey Graham & Joe Lieberman) landed in Baghdad and are set to meet with deputy PM Barham Saleh, Gen. David Petraeus, and perhaps al-Maliki as well. […]

McCain’s trip abroad will also include visits in the UK with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Stavros Dimas, the European Union’s commissioner for the environment; in Paris with President Nicolas Sarkozy; in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Likud leader Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu; and in Amman, with Jordanian King Abdullah.

And he gets to go with his bestest best friend, Senator Lieberman of the Lieberman for Lieberman Party. How much you wanna bet the US taxpayer is picking up the tab for this little stunt? Oh, don’t want to take that bet? Me neither:

McCain says his trip is as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. But on Thursday, McCain will hold a fundraiser at Spencer House in London for Americans living abroad — $1,000-$2,300 per person. McCain joins a growing list of U.S. candidates shaking money trees abroad — Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have sent their spouses to the British Isles on such tasks, and Rudy Giuliani hopped across the pond for a similar fundraiser.

Isn’t that special. Of course, it’s a fact finding trip. Tell you what Straight Shooter, why don’t you go back to that same marketplace you visited last year, the one where snipers returned and mortar shells killed market goers after your hundreds of US military bodyguards vacated the premises, only this time do it without any military escort. After all, the “surge” you support has worked so well you shouldn’t need any protection from the US military, right? Or take a tour of Sadr City. I bet those people would just love to shake the hand of the man who promised a hundred year occupation of Iraq by the US of A.

Now that would be a real fact finding mission.

9 Comments

wanderindiana on March 16, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Cheney, that is:

Vice President Dick Cheney left on Sunday for the Middle East to raise concerns about high oil prices, push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and seek support for Iraq, where war began five years ago this week.

Cheney, who has strong ties with leaders in the Middle East, will visit Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories, and Turkey during a nine-day trip to the region.

It would have to be a side trip, but where else could McCain go to get a private meeting with the Dark One?

Steven D on March 16, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Probably going to ask Cheney to pick his Veep for him.
- Bright Creature on March 16, 2008 at 4:39 pm
  
  Or rather meeting with the master (Cheney) to be informed of who his veep will be.

idredit on March 16, 2008 at 4:09 pm

McCain could have saved all that money. Only had to read this:

How to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Iraq’s Blood-Sodden Anniversaries

“It reminds me of Iraq under Saddam,” said a militant opponent of Saddam Hussein angrily to me last week as he watched red-capped Iraqi soldiers close down part of central Baghdad so the convoy of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki might briefly venture into the city.

ive rears after the invasion of Iraq the US and the Iraqi government both claim that Iraq is becoming a less dangerous place, but the measures taken to protect Mr Maliki told a different story. Gun-waving soldiers first cleared all traffic from the streets. Then four black armored cars, each with three machine gunners on the roof, raced out of a heavily fortified exit from the Green Zone, followed by sand-coloured American Humvees and more armoured cars.

[.]

Five years of occupation have destroyed Iraq as a country. Baghdad is today a collection of hostile Sunni and Shia ghettoes divided by high concrete walls. Different districts even have different national flags. Sunni areas use the old Iraqi flag with the three stars of the Baath party and the Shia wave a newer version, adopted by the Shia-Kurdish government. The Kurds have their own flag.

The Iraqi government tries to give the impression that normality is returning. Iraqi journalists are told not to mention the continuing violence. When a bomb exploded in Karada district near my hotel killing 70 people the police beat and drove away television cameraman trying to take pictures of the devastation.

[.]

McCain goes on to London – is using this trip for a fundraiser in London.

Heart of the Rockies on March 16, 2008 at 10:33 pm

I’ve read about the fundraising in the UK. From American citizens, I presume. Isn’t it illegal otherwise?

dada on March 16, 2008 at 4:20 pm

st. john and lindsey needed some new rugs and lieberman went along for the bargains. he’s probably redecorating.

Bright Creature on March 16, 2008 at 4:37 pm

well…

it’s a Fact that they are Finding money overseas?

lutton on March 16, 2008 at 5:55 pm

Did they rent or buy the cod piece? (it’s a long campaign season, maybe the purchase option isn’t a bad one in the long run…)

Dongi 2 on March 16, 2008 at 6:22 pm

I love reading the comments here in the frog pond. So many witty people. And McCain and Bush and Cheney and Lieberman—are they really real or am I just having another nightmare? Armored cars rushing from the green zone in a country where the surge is supposed to be working and police preventing tv cameramen from filming the latest bombing. The poor people of this devastated nation, what did they do to deserve the help of the new barbarians? I am so ashamed to be a citizen of the United States. If God is just, America is in deep, deep trouble.

wanderindiana on March 16, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Cheney, that is:

Vice President Dick Cheney left on Sunday for the Middle East to raise concerns about high oil prices, push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and seek support for Iraq, where war began five years ago this week.

Cheney, who has strong ties with leaders in the Middle East, will visit Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories, and Turkey during a nine-day trip to the region.

It would have to be a side trip, but where else could McCain go to get a private meeting with the Dark One?
- Steven D on March 16, 2008 at 4:13 pm
  
  Probably going to ask Cheney to pick his Veep for him.
  - Bright Creature on March 16, 2008 at 4:39 pm
    
    Or rather meeting with the master (Cheney) to be informed of who his veep will be.
idredit on March 16, 2008 at 4:09 pm

McCain could have saved all that money. Only had to read this:

How to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Iraq’s Blood-Sodden Anniversaries

“It reminds me of Iraq under Saddam,” said a militant opponent of Saddam Hussein angrily to me last week as he watched red-capped Iraqi soldiers close down part of central Baghdad so the convoy of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki might briefly venture into the city.

ive rears after the invasion of Iraq the US and the Iraqi government both claim that Iraq is becoming a less dangerous place, but the measures taken to protect Mr Maliki told a different story. Gun-waving soldiers first cleared all traffic from the streets. Then four black armored cars, each with three machine gunners on the roof, raced out of a heavily fortified exit from the Green Zone, followed by sand-coloured American Humvees and more armoured cars.

[.]

Five years of occupation have destroyed Iraq as a country. Baghdad is today a collection of hostile Sunni and Shia ghettoes divided by high concrete walls. Different districts even have different national flags. Sunni areas use the old Iraqi flag with the three stars of the Baath party and the Shia wave a newer version, adopted by the Shia-Kurdish government. The Kurds have their own flag.

The Iraqi government tries to give the impression that normality is returning. Iraqi journalists are told not to mention the continuing violence. When a bomb exploded in Karada district near my hotel killing 70 people the police beat and drove away television cameraman trying to take pictures of the devastation.

[.]

McCain goes on to London – is using this trip for a fundraiser in London.
- Heart of the Rockies on March 16, 2008 at 10:33 pm
  
  I’ve read about the fundraising in the UK. From American citizens, I presume. Isn’t it illegal otherwise?
dada on March 16, 2008 at 4:20 pm

st. john and lindsey needed some new rugs and lieberman went along for the bargains. he’s probably redecorating.
Bright Creature on March 16, 2008 at 4:37 pm

well…

it’s a Fact that they are Finding money overseas?
lutton on March 16, 2008 at 5:55 pm

Did they rent or buy the cod piece? (it’s a long campaign season, maybe the purchase option isn’t a bad one in the long run…)
Dongi 2 on March 16, 2008 at 6:22 pm

I love reading the comments here in the frog pond. So many witty people. And McCain and Bush and Cheney and Lieberman—are they really real or am I just having another nightmare? Armored cars rushing from the green zone in a country where the surge is supposed to be working and police preventing tv cameramen from filming the latest bombing. The poor people of this devastated nation, what did they do to deserve the help of the new barbarians? I am so ashamed to be a citizen of the United States. If God is just, America is in deep, deep trouble.

McCain Takes a Road Trip to Iraq

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