Wearing helmet and flak jacket, Rice says Iraqis 'making progress'

[bigtree]

October 6, 2006

Rice, in Baghdad, Insists That Iraqis Are ‘Making Progress’

The U.S. Secretary of State flew by military helicopter to the heavily fortified American-controlled Green Zone, bypassing the dangerous, explosives-strewn airport highway into the city.

By PHILIP SHENON

BAGHDAD, Oct. 5 — Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting bodyguards to defend against insurgents, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came here Thursday, insisting that there were new signs of progress in Iraq and that the Bush administration had never sugarcoated its news about the American occupation.

“What the American people see on their television screens is the struggle,” she said. “It is harder to show the political process that is going on at local levels, at provincial levels and indeed at the national level.” Iraqis, she said, are “making progress.”

Yet signs of progress were not much in evidence in the first hours of her visit.

It began inauspiciously when the military transport plane that brought her to Baghdad was forced to circle the city for about 40 minutes because of what a State Department spokesman later said was either mortar fire or rockets at the airport.

On Thursday evening, during her meeting with President Jalal Talabani, the lights went out, forcing Ms. Rice to continue the discussion in the dark. It was a reminder of the city’s erratic — and sometimes nonexistent — electrical service.

She arrived in the midst of an especially bloody few days for American troops. At least 21 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Saturday, most in Baghdad . . .


report: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/world/middleeast/06diplo.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=9a02eab07ab05c60&ex=1160280000&pagewanted=print


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[LynnTheDem]

1. And there rice goes, lying again.

Gee I am so shocked.

No really.

Shocked, I tell ya.

:eyes:

How is it so-called "christians" think it's ok to lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie? Jesus must have been the biggest liar in world history.

[babylonsister]

2. I wonder if she really called it an 'occupation'.

:wow:

[bigtree]

6. I doubt it . . .

good writing at the NYT

[jimshoes]

3. I feel like a mushroom

(Kept in the dark and fed shit.)
edit: Love your new helmet condi,.... that is a helmet, isn't it?

[Not Me]

4. 3 1/2 years into the occupation,

and she still has to fly unannounced, and wore a bullet proof vest coming off the plane yesterday in Baghdad. We can not even guarantee security at the airport.

[verse18]

5. She should have given that helmet and flak jacket

to the troops. They need it more than she does.

[sabra]

7. and the exact same time Sen. Warner says we are losing the Baghdad

campaign... :shrug:

[bigtree]

9. and standing down Iraqi police units which devolved into death squads

[rsmith6621]

8. They SMILE WHILE US TROOPS ARE BEING...

KILLED FOR OIL AND PROFITS


They have no shame...

[malaise]

10. I need a pic of that lying $itch

walking on a red carpet clearly laid out for her in the middle of this chaos. It is classic symbolism as she slams her high heels on the blood of the slaughtered Iraqis and Americans. CNN showed it early this morning.

[madmusic]

11. Progress? Yeah, if the goal is overpopulation control.

[Botany]

12. Sen. John Warner just said we are losing Baghdad yesterday

And yet Condi says this crap;

“It is harder to show the political process that is going on at local levels,
at provincial levels and indeed at the national level.”

[rurallib]

13. Any resemblance to Baghdad Bob is purely coincidental

[damntexdem]

14. Wearing a helmet and flack jacket?

Hey, cmon, Condi, put on some pants! ;-)

Well, I guess with all the progress being made, she DOES have to protect herself from all the flowers the Iraqis are throwing at her. ;-)