We Don't Believe You. You Need More People.

Edwin Starr - WAR
Sylvers - Fool's Paradise
Black Merda - Sometimes I Wish

In an effort to curtail the rumors that Iraq is nothing more than a clusterfuck, surrounded by chaos, violence, and mayhem, John McCain, Indiana congressman Mike Pence, and others visited Iraq. McCain doesn't have any ulterior motives, he just wants the best for the Iraqi people.

It's nice to know that 100 armed guards, helicopters, and snipers can give Iraq a temporary feeling of normalcy. You also have to love the fact that this article mentioned that Pence was under "a relatively small military escort and without helmet." Look Ma, no helmet!

More tellingly, the day after the McCain/Pence marketplace visit, the vendors in the market were dying, literally, to tell their side of the story.

• “What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal! They paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media.”
• “They asked about our conditions, and we told them the situation was bad,” said Aboud Sharif Kadhoury.
• Ali Youssef, 39, who sells glassware from a sidewalk stand down the block from Mr. Kadhoury, recalled: “Everybody complained to them. We told them we were harmed. This area here is very dangerous,” continued Mr. Youssef, who lost his shop in the February attack. “They cannot secure it.”
• Abu Samer, a kitchenware and clothing wholesaler, scoffed: “He is just using this visit for publicity. He is just using it for himself. They’ll just take a photo of him at our market and they will just show it in the United States. He will win in America and we will have nothing.”

Meanwhile, since the cameras and extra snipers have left, things have returned to normal. At least, how the new Iraq defines "normal." People wake up to the fresh smell of the suicide chlorine bombs. In addition, the war has created new, fruitful ways to make a living. Like checking the stock market in the morning, the US military casulaties stay rising. Of course, the answer to the Iraqi-problem is IRAN.

It's just another day. Another day in which the definition of normalcy becomes perverted, twisted, and left to rot.