Baghdad Merchants Beg to Differ With McCain

Of course John McCain found Baghdad's central market perfectly safe during his weekend visit: He came with 100 soldiers in armored Humvees, backed by attack helicopters and sharpshooters. In a follow-up visit, Kirk Semple of the New York Times found merchants  incredulous at the Congressional delegation's sunny description of the security situation there.

"What are they talking about?" asked merchant Ali Jassim Faiyad. "They paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media."  Semple notes that 61 people were killed by bombs at the same market in February, and another 60 died in an attack at a different market last Thursday. (More Iraq stories.)