Strolling Through the Market

(Via ThinkProgress)

It's been almost a year now since Senator McCain took that famous leisurely stroll through a Baghdad market -- just him, 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships.

How have things changed since then? Well, according to CNN:

[Our security advisers] didn't believe it was safe for an American to be in that area. We were in a thriving marketplace nearby.

But when you show up, the local Iraqis, while it is clear security is better on the street — it is clear there are more markets open, just the traffic jams alone tell you that things are better on the streets of Baghdad — it’s also a very sensitive potential neighborhoods.

That one marketplace, as a matter of fact, you do see Iraqi police, you do see the Iraqi army, but in truth, that area is controlled by the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army.