It appears that all those images featuring political leaders strolling through Baghdad markets were indeed dog and pony shows, after all.
DEHGHANPISHEH: You know, I don’t know of any Westerners who go strolling around the streets of Baghdad, and unless you do have what you mentioned; a convoy of Humvees or choppers to back you up for protection. Then I think it would be suicidal.
UYGUR: You think it would be suicidal? So, if you’re a Westerner, the idea of going out for a stroll in Baghdad, you’re calling it suicidal. Your chances of getting killed or kidnapped is incredibly high?
Joe Biden, having just visited Baghdad, agrees.
On the September 9 edition of NBC’s Meet The Press, United States Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) announced that he believes the US military surge in Iraq is “a failure.”
“The truth of the matter,” said Biden, who just returned from Iraq, “is that this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure.”
He clearly forgot to drink from the Kool Aid fountain.
In fact, in spite of the surge extravanganza being put out by the neocons, the majority of the American public already expect that General Petraeus will be delivering an unrealistic assessment of the progress in Iraq, and realize that Bush’s policies regarding Iraq were never going to be affected by the report, either way.