Think Progress has this compelling bit of amateur video from February when U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) told an audience at the Merrick Jewish Center that his visit to Baghdad reminded him of the vibrancy of Manhattan.
This is a stretch. I've never come across any suicide bombers in Manhattan. I wonder if King's pro-war stance is helping Nassau County Leg. David Mejias (D-North Massapequa) in his bid to unseat the incumbent. The campaign dollars appear to be rolling in for Mejias but is it enough?
Here's the transcript according to the group:
"As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan. I mean, I’m talking about bumper to bumper traffic, talking about shopping centers, talking about restaurants, talking about video stores, talking about guys selling (inaudible) on the street corner, talking about major hotels.
And so, at that moment, people must be (inaudible) resilient and you would never know that there was a war going on. Now, car bomb goes off, and that street or those streets for that hour and people will (inaudible) but the rest of the country is functioning.
Up in Mosul, I remember seeing news reports about roller coasters? Where you had two or three parking lots filled with their cars on a Sunday afternoon. Again, that’s not something you’d see on television, and at any given time a suicide bomber can walk into an amusement center, but the point I’m making is that the situation is more stable than you think."
Comments (7)
King said the same thing about Baghdad being just like Manhattan in his debate with Dave Mejias last night. It amazes me how one can be a United States Congressman, and yet be so clueless. Did he expect to see a deserted city? Of course there are people there, and of course they drive their cars, and try make a living. It doesn't change the fact that Iraqis fear for their lives everytime leave their homes to go to the market. Does he think people in Manhattan live like that? And King's visit was back in February. It is even worse now. How come he didn't mention how all the rebuilding efforts are being outsourced to mostly American companies making huge profits, while the Iraqis suffer from a 65% unemployment rate, or mention the hundreds dying daily due to the sectarian violence that this war has unleashed. Or that more of our brave soldiers have died in this war than the number of people who died on 9/11.
All the blood and death from this war are on the hands of Bush, King, and the rest of this do-nothing GOP congress that has completely neglected its oversight responsibility. It is way past a time for change, and we need to clean house of these rubberstamp bunch of clowns in congress.
King must go!!
Vote for Dave Mejias for Congress and bring some integrity back to washington!
King gives his observation on what he saw while he was on a trip to Baghdad (where I'm sure Jim A. or Newsday's editorial staff has never been)and Newsday and Mejias' Campaign staffers turn it around that King thinks Baghdad is like Manhattan 24-hours a day. Typical.
And you want to talk about clueless, did you see Mejias' face when he was asked about North Korea during the debate? The only thing he could muster up was that he agreed with what King said two seconds earlier.
Errol - Never saw suicide bombers in Manhattan? That's only because you weren;t in certain tall buildings on a certain September morning! Now do you get it?
Leave your snide commentary for the Viewpoints page!
That's a fair point TKN. I sought to raise the notion that the atmosphere, as it relates to violence, is very different in Baghdad than it is in Manhattan.
I was also referring to conventional suicide bombers who use cars or carry concealed explosives. They're commonplace in Baghdad, not Manhattan. But you're right, 9/11 is a single, indelible example of the damage suicide terror can inflict.
To Anonymous:
No, I haven't been to Iraq, but most people without a political agenda who come back from Iraq have a much different story to tell than does King. Remember, King was in the green zone when he was in Baghdad, which is a safer area only becuase it is fortified and well protected by the US military. It is not an indicitive of the rest of the country or even the rest of Baghdad. And he completely contridicted himself in the debate. King talked about the "dichotomy" of Iraq using as an example that a roadside bomb went off on the road he was on and they diverted into the city and nothing happend there. King said that this shows "how dangerous it is and how stable it is."
The man is delusional. Dangerous and stable at the same time? I think that would be a text book definition of UNstable. Do road side bombs go off in Manhanttan on a regular basis?
If King didn't think it was like Manhattan 24/7, why would he even make that comparison. You are being intellectual dishonest if you think King wasn't trying to make it sound like it was as safe in Baghdad as in Manhattan.
To TKN:
Yes we were attacked on 9/11 by suicide bombers of a sort, but that had nothing to do with Iraq. In fact the people responsible for those attacks are still running free because Bush, King, and the rest of the GOP apologists cut and ran from going after them to attack a country that posed no threat to us, or anyone else for that matter, and turned it into a recruiting ground for terrorist (where none existed before). It has made the Iraqis day to day life a living hell. As bad as Saddam was, there was relative stability in Iraq before the invasion and occupation.
Now do you get it?
To Jim A.:
All King did was tell the audience what he saw. By analyzing every word and spinning it against King you and your boy Errol are the ones being intellectually dishonest.
To Anonymous:
No King didn't just tell us what he saw. He compared Baghdad to Manhattan and said it was just as safe. He also said that 95 % of Iraq is safe. That may actually be true, since about 95% of Iraq is uninhabited. These are not just observations, they are opinions, and they don't jive with other observations by people who have also been there. It is are nothing but politically motivated propaganda intended to portray this debacle in Iraq as being successful. He is nothing but a lapdog and apologist for Bush.
I would consider myself negligent if I didn't point out the absurdity of his comments.