Larry Johnson responds to McCain's Baghdad 'stroll'
Former CIA officer and counter-terrorism expert Larry Johnson, in a Tuesday interview on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, assailed the decision by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to visit a Baghdad market and make exaggerated claims of its safety.
According to Johnson, the lawmakers' visit actually put troops' lives in danger by requiring a shift in resources to secure the market. Johnson also disputed claims that the market itself was relatively secure to begin with.
"What captured my attention was it was only Americans," Johnson said. "There were no Iraqi soldiers there. That tells me that even the U.S. commanders didn't trust Iraqi soldiers enough to have them be the force in play to show what a safe neighborhood it was."
Johnson also responded to a statement made by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), who accompanied McCain and Graham to Baghdad, in which he compared the market to "a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime."
"Look, I'm from Missouri, been to several farmers markets," said Johnson. "I don't ever recall ever having to wear body armor to a farmer's market."
Johnson went on to accuse Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham of using the soldiers as propaganda.
"Sen. McCain, who's a retired, decorated navy veteran, and Sen. Graham, who was an air force officer, they should have known better," said Johnson. "But instead U.S. troops were used as a propaganda tool so that they could come back and try and make the argument 'See, we can go buy a rug.'"
Johnson continued, "But in the process of buying a rug, they did the same thing that George Bush did in New Orleans right after Katrina, had the
lights, had the stage. Turned the lights off, it wasn't real."
The interview can be watched below:
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