IRAQ -- MILITARY ANALYSTS RESPOND TO McCAIN ESCALATION REMARK WITH 'LAUGHTER DOWN THE LINE':
On Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told radio host Bill Bennett that President Bush's escalation is working. "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today," he said.
Yesterday, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked McCain why Americans still aren't able to safely leave the Green Zone in Iraq, the senator replied that Blitzer was giving three-month-old talking points: "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee," McCain said. "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 according to CNN reporter Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq for four years, McCain is way off base. He stated, "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."
Ware also rebutted McCain's assertion that Petraeus travels in an unarmed humvee: "[I]n the hour since Sen. McCain 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."
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