The Photo-Op Death Sentence

by Jason Rosenbaum :: Filed Under Middle East / South Asia :: September 13th, 2007 @ 8:23 pm EST

Dropping by Iraq for a quick visit seems to be the new vogue thing for U.S. politicians to do. Congressman and executives fly into Baghdad, stay for a few days, participate in heavily scripted meet and greets with soldiers and Iraqi officials, and then come home supposedly “changed.”

Why our elected officials feel they need to spend their time and our money to visit Iraq is an open question. Certainly, some officials need to visit and/or live in the country. But do the representatives from every state in the union really have to go? More to the point, why do some feel that anyone who hasn’t put their “boots on the ground” in Iraq can’t legitimately talk about the war?

Whatever the answers to these questions, the high profile photo-ops that go along with the visits are a death sentence for the Iraqis involved.

Remember John McCain’s wonderfully carefree stroll through an Iraqi market in April? Here’s a refresher:

Petraeus brought McCain to a rug shop, an ordinary scene, until you step back to see the 22 soldiers outside. Inside, McCain did his own reporting, asking the rug merchant, “In the last two months are things better or worse?”

The merchant said things are better, but, he said, there are snipers in the neighborhood that sometimes paralyze the market. The tour of the bazaar seemed, well, a little bizarre. The delegation played the role of tourists while surrounded by enormous firepower.

McCain took some nice photos, made some good statements, and generally tried to prop up his failing Presidential bid.

21 Shia market workers were kidnapped and killed from that very market days later.

Or take the latest Iraqi dog and pony show. Two weeks ago, President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq to try and build support for his failing war plan at home. This time, instead of flying to Baghdad, he flew to the Anbar province to meet with local Sheikh Abdul Sittar Bezea al-Rishawi, someone who he touted as being at the forefront of the so-called “bottom-up progress” that was being made in the region.

Sheikh Sittar was right to feel suspicious. (Tell me he doesn’t look scared to death in that photo!) He was killed barely two weeks after Bush left, assassinated by a roadside bomb.

The fact is, people are dying for these photo-ops. Being associated with the U.S. is bad enough in a country where every side seems to be against us. Being publicly photographed shaking the enemy’s hand is literally a death sentence.

Whatever the way forward is in Iraq, our politicians need to stop using Iraqi stooges for political gain. You don’t need to have been there to be taken seriously when talking about the war, and you certainly don’t need a picture of your with a scared looking sheik to be legitimate. So don’t go to Iraq! All you are doing is making your friends into targets.

These people don’t want us there and it is dangerous for them to be seen with us, so at the very least, let’s stop forcing them to play a part in our propaganda wars.