European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 12, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              April 2007 opinion stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 13 the Avon be peacekeeping soweneepa5howof Mand Soqr some Unity Mccain pandered to deflectors of Iraq facts by Paul Campos last John Mccain staged a truly orwellian publicity stunt in a Baghdad in a desperate attempt to give some Sliver of Cre Dence to claims that the dreaded Liberal Media Are failing to report on All the wonderful things happening in Mccain took a Brief walk outside the american main trained fortress that is Baghdad Green Mccain declared his walk through the Market was a sign that Security had improved significantly in the iraqi Capi and the administrations current troop escalation is what he didst mention was during his Short he was accompanied by dozens of heavily armed troops and several armoured while a couple of attack helicopters hovered Over Mccain photo of which included the spectacle of the elderly senator wearing a flak jacket was ludicrous on so Many Levels that even the normally docile National which has always treated Mccain with kid pointed out he was making a fool of Mccain issued a halfhearted apology a few Days saying he mis spoke when he pointed to his Little walk under the Protection of several platoons from the worlds most powerful military As evidence of Baghdad excellent shopping the most interesting question raised by Mccain pathetic stunt is Why this genuine War hero who after All knows far better than most politicians the difference Between real courage and the made fort kind thought he could get away with the answer can be found by taking a ran Dom stroll through the archives of the very Media Mccain was trying to from the first Days of the Iraq it has been an article of dogmatic Faith among the movement conservatives Mccain is trying to woo that the Liberal Media have Given Ameri cans a Farto Bleak picture of whats Hap pening in Here Are just a few examples out of literally hundreds in september former Clinton advise turned righting Media pundit Dick Morris declared that the in credibly biased Liberal Media were claim ing that Iraq is a quagmire and that there Arent any weapons of mass and that Bush lied and All the thanks to Fox news Are seeing with their own eyes How much this is crazy a year later syndicated columnist and Bush administration stenographer Mark Steyn announced that the Liberal Media were doing their Best to hide the fact that the Glass in Iraq is about two thirds the bulk of the violence is confined to one province and parts of Baghdad there is no civil and last april president Bush himself took the Media to task the kind of Progress that we and the iraqi people Are making in places like Tal afar is not easy to capture in a Short clip on the evening he footage of children or shops open and people resuming their Normal lives will never be As dramatic As the footage of an red or the destruction of a or soldiers and civilians being killed or two weeks almost exactly a year to the Day after Bush uttered these Tal afar was the site of a particularly horrible in which 70 men and boys were some of the murder ers were members of the towns police Over the past four years its become Clear when it comes to perhaps a Quarter of americans Are equipped with skulls that can successfully deflect almost Allun pleasant these people will account for the majority of the votes cast in next years Republican primaries hence Mccain extraordinarily Well armed heres another unpleasant fact the Day after Mccain photo 21 people from that same Market were taken North of the and Scripps Howard columnist Paul Campos is a Law professor at the University of prickly City Media crossed a line by blasting Mccain a positive attitude cant win a but it defeatism reigns supreme Here at no where is the inherently negative criticism of the War More evident than in the recent attacks on Lopez John one of the Ini tial backers of the coalition troop surge in now i am one of the last people who wants to whine about the Liberal its a Boring one that begs readers to skip the rest of the column but its not entirely True and produces few fruitful fact there Are some Brave and honest people from both parties reporting from War and they deserve respect and an a As their jobs share an amount of danger Akin to the jobs of the servicemen Bers on whom they Are but said reporters should not let their bravery blur the distinction Between the facts and their inns Michael Ware went overboard recently when he vented Nair about former Vietnam prisoner of War question ing his in an angry Ware told situation room Host Wolf id certainly like to bring Mccain up to if he Ever gives me the and if i have any difficulty hearing you right that be cause of the helicopter circling overhead and the gun Battle that is blazing just a few blocks Down the a supposedly objective added i Mccain credibility now on which has been so solid to this has now been left out hanging to to suggest that theres any neighbourhood in this City where an american can walk freely is beyond id love Mccain to Tell me where that neighbor Hood and he and i can go for a Mccain was to be in Baghdad the follow ing but Ware dismissed Mccain congressional essentially Call ing it smoke and mirrors for the american what precipitated wares anger at the senator speaking from the United states at the had insisted the surge was making Progress not Chang ing the face of Iraq but showing con Crete signs of my own instinct was to worry that Mccain overstated his Case when he on Bill Bennetts morn o o 0 Curt Arizona John who is seeking the Republican 2008 presidential talks with Ray commander of multinational on april 2 in ing radio there Are neighbor hoods in Iraq that Are Safe to walk the very statement that so enraged Ware but just because Good news is coming from a Region currently and historically immersed in tragedy Doest diminish the Cre Dence of those and though i hesitate to question Ware who on the ground in Iraq the i is most Likely closer to what one Marine told Thomas Smith from National review online its not All doom and gloom there Are some progressive things which Are rarely and i will explain in the com ing but there also Are a lot of bad things happening that dont make the nightly a delicate mix of both Good and bad is the reality of the ongoing surge in politicians and citizens must now recognize the few truths Good or bad we receive from Baghdad and Stop the in partisan Kathryn Lopez is National review online by Scott Stantis