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Length: 8:06
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: First, though, opinion and
fact -- a week ago, Senator John McCain said there
were parts of Baghdad safe enough for him to walk
around in. This weekend, wearing a flak jacket and
very heavily guarded, he took that walk through a
Baghdad market. That's a fact.
And here's another: Just a day after his visit,
snipers were back, shooting the place up.
More facts now from CNN's Michael Ware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For
presidential candidate Senator John McCain, walking
Baghdad's Shorja market is a sure sign of change.
He and the congressional delegation he led spent an
hour Sunday talking to Iraqis and buying carpets. But
theirs was anything but an everyday experience --
around them, more than 100 U.S. soldiers locking down
the area, keeping out traffic and pedestrians;
overhead, two Apache gunships; hidden around the
market, U.S. sniper teams.
With thousands of U.S. troop reinforcements moving
into Baghdad, as part of a surge to quell the
capital, McCain's real message was for Americans back
home.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The American people
are not getting the full picture of what's happening
here. They're not getting the full picture of the
drop in murders, the establishment of security
outposts throughout the city, the situation in Anbar
Province, the deployment of additional Iraqi
brigades, who are performing well, and other signs of
progress that are having been made.
WARE: Progress, but still far from victory, said the
senator, with a long, difficult struggle and much
more violence ahead. Indeed, on the day his
congressional delegation made its P.R. visit to the
Baghdad market, across the country, six American
troops and a British soldier were killed, 15 Iraqi
soldiers died in a truck bombing in Mosul, a police
officer in Diyala Province was killed by a hidden
bomb, and three civilians blown apart in another
market.
And, back in Baghdad, the same morning of the
congressional visit, Iraqi police found 17
bullet-riddled bodies on the city streets. With
Baghdad morgues still overflowing with grieving
relatives, the senator's point is that the daily
sectarian death toll is down from just months ago.
Yet, outside the capital, sectarian violence is
unabated. 19 tortured bodies found in Diyala Province
Monday morning. And, in the border town of Tal Afar
-- praised by President Bush as a model of U.S.
success, reclaimed from al Qaeda -- Iraqi officials
say suicide bombings one day last week slaughtered
152 mainly Shia Muslims, prompting some officers in
the Shia-dominated police to execute up to 70 Sunni
Muslims later that night.
It's this violence Senator McCain hopes more U.S.
soldiers can stop, even though more Iraqis died in
March than in February. Just last week, the senator
claimed reinforcements had already made parts of
Baghdad so safe, an American could now walk them,
something even an Iraqi journalist had to question.
QUESTION: I have just read on the Internet that you
said there are areas in Baghdad that you can walk
around freely.
MCCAIN: Yes, I just was -- came from one.
QUESTION: Pardon me?
MCCAIN: I just came from one.
QUESTION: Yes. And which areas would that be?
MCCAIN: Sir, what I said was -- what I said was that
there is encouraging signs and that things are
better.
WARE: Just seven weeks ago, this was the market where
McCain went shopping -- three separate bombs minutes
apart, 79 lives lost, the market's fifth attack since
last summer.
And, while there hasn't been a bombing here since, it
may be just as well Senator McCain's delegation had
heavy protection. According to the Reuters News
Agency, the market was hit just 24 hours later with
sniper fire, a regular event, locals say, with about
one person cut down each day -- the senator's visit
perhaps highlighting more than he intended: that, in
war, as in politics, perception so often is reality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Michael Ware joins us now live from Baghdad.
Michael, in the past 48 hours, after that press
conference, there's been some buzz on conservative
blogs that you were a bit of a yabbo at that press
conference; you were heckling Senator McCain; you
were asking impertinent questions.
What really went on?
WARE: Well, I can tell you straightaway, John, the
answer's rather dull and boring. Nothing went on.
Indeed, I didn't heckle. I didn't even ask a
question.
And I think the videotape of the press conference
from the moment the senator walked in until the
moment the senator walked out bears that out.
Essentially, I arrived at press conference, sat where
I usually sit, thereabouts, and waited for it to
begin. The senators were late, and it was over almost
before it began.
ROBERTS: Now, Michael, there's no question that, if
we look back to last week, you had an interesting
explanation for the -- or response to the senator's
words, when he said you could walk around freely in
some areas of Baghdad. Do you think that somehow what
you said last week and what's being said about you
now are tied together?
WARE: Well, I don't think it's too much of a longbow
to draw to link the two.
I think that, as a result of what the senator said
last week -- and let's bear in mind, his Iraq
policies, more than most, reflect the realities on
the ground. But, in one gaffe last week, he put his
whole Iraq credibility on the line. And, when he was
called to question on that, his arrival here in
Baghdad became such a political investment. His visit
to that Baghdad market just had to work, and he had
to herald it as a great success. So, there's a lot of
pressure on him.
And other people at that press conference, in the
print media the next day, called him sometimes testy
and defensive. So, obviously, the senator was feeling
the pressure.
ROBERTS: Did McCain's people say anything to you
during that press conference or after, Michael?
WARE: No, not before, during or after. Indeed, after
the original blowup the week before, we attempted
several times, through a multitude of channels, to
reach out to the senator's people, and to say that we
would be very happy to discuss any issues with him.
Yet, we were rebuffed and ignored at every turn.
ROBERTS: Now, take a look at a couple of the issues
here, Michael. You said in your report that the
senator didn't do anything at the Shorja market that
hadn't been done before. And that is to go out in the
streets, with heavy protection, snipers on the
rooftops, lots of armed men surrounding you, and
really didn't do anything to highlight the progress
that has been made as a result of the surge.
If he wanted to highlight that progress, what should
he have done, in your estimation?
WARE: Well, I think there are a couple of relatively
simple things, yet very poignant things, that could
be done.
For example, he doesn't even have to come to Iraq. He
could visit exiles from Iraq who are sheltering in
Jordan, for example, and ask them, are you going
home? Has the surge made you feel more confident? Or,
indeed, here in Baghdad, if he wants to venture out
of the comfort of the Green Zone, go somewhere real.
Go to one of these camps where the displaced are
sheltering, these people who have been driven from
their homes by racial ethnic cleansing or sectarian
cleansing. Ask them, are you ready to go home?
Or, even still, visit a Baghdad morgue. See if there
is a decline. Talk to the people there, where their
emotions are stripped bare, and they're not
confronted by a politician surrounded by soldiers
with guns in a marketplace.
ROBERTS: Well, maybe we will see him do some of that,
but perhaps not this time.
Michael Ware, in Baghdad, good to see you, mate.
Thanks very much.