John McCain Went to Iraq...and Talked to the Wrong People

[SteelPenguin]

I have a friend who works for a major American company which owns several theme parks. He gets certain perks with his job, which includes first class admission to said theme parks. He's got a VIP pass as it were. When he goes with his wife, they travel there in first class on the company shuttle flight. They have a VIP limo from the airport to their luxury hotel, where they have a suite. They then have full admission to the parks, and the behind the scenes activities. They don't have to wait in the same lines as the regular folk. They have a park conceierge to help them at any time. Everything they get is grade A first class.

I know another person who went to the same park and had a miserable time. Waiting in long lines in the hot sun. Everything was overpriced. Their hotel room too small and they had to switch because of a combination of a strange smell in the bathroom and insects in the bedroom. On their last day they were denied entry to the park incorrectly because of a ticket snafu and had to waste a good part of the day at the airport.

Two people can go to the same place and have very different experiences.

John McCain got the VIP treatment in Iraq. He didn't have to fly to Jordan and go overland to Baghdad like the vast majority of people, spending a day crossing the border and desert in a dusty hot un air conditioned fiat. He has platoons of security, flanking him, preparing the way for him, and otherwise protecting him. He's presented pre-screened people to talk with, who have been briefed on the questions and answers they should expect, and to give.

to think that a trip like that, and the same trip by Obama, will do anything to help their strategic thinking on the situation is absurd. John McCain knows better. Obama knows better, but is honest about it.

You don't have to go to Iraq and have a VIP tour of a fake Iraqi market in order to form an opinion on the utter waste of lives and money the war has been, not to mention the complete pointlessness of the invasion in the first place.

[Youphemism]

1. True, but Obama's trip will probably be very valuable...

The only time he's liable to get the real poop from any military guys is face-to-face. After taking orders from a C-in-C who's one genetic step away from cauliflower, even people like Patreus might have a few surprising things to say, and good suggestions -- not only for how he can proceed after getting elected, but ideas he might suggest during the rest of the campaign.

Surprising and valuable friends have been found in stranger places than Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll bet Obama comes back armed with information that will help him really stomp McCain on his home turf.