After 9/11 President Bush encouraged us to be strong, support our neighbors and most of all, go shopping. Nothing show American spirit and a sense of renewal like cold hard cash being exchanged.
Now, the American people have got to go about their business. We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't -- where we don't conduct business, where people don't shop. That's their intention. Their intention was not only to kill and maim and destroy. Their intention was to frighten to the point where our nation would not act. Their intention was to so frighten our government that we wouldn't seek justice; that somehow we would cower in the face of their threats and not respond, abroad or at home.
John McCain has exported that level of American spirit and injected it into the shopkeepers on the streets of Baghdad. His straigh-talk express method of goods purchasing overwhelmed the merchants as they made room for his entourage and allowed him to trumpet the successes of his dear leader.
ELEANOR HALL: A group of Republican politicians from the United States has used a shopping trip in Baghdad to argue that security is improving in the Iraqi capital.
White House hopeful John McCain and fellow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham have been gushing about their hour spent shopping at a Baghdad market.
And they've also taken the opportunity to back the President's plan to send extra troops to Iraq while criticising the Democrat efforts to impose a deadline for the withdrawal of US forces.
Not only are they bringing home goodies for their wives... but a sense of just how wonderful it is to stroll safely through a post-war village surrounded by men and women sworn to the same course he's determined to stay.
Posted by kerry at April 4, 2007 03:44 AM