Maliki's McCain Moment

In the course of commenting on my post about Maliki's declaration of victory and national reconciliation on al-Arabiya, Eric Martin writes:

Yeah, I'd say the only thing Maliki's declaration of victory needs is some pageantry.  Does Iraq have any aircraft carriers?   

What, you think Maliki didn't take full-spectrum notes?  Yesterday, Maliki took a John McCain vintage victory tour of Baghdad to push his message of victory.  In what all news accounts describe as a rare appearance in the streets of the capital city, Maliki ventured out for a full half-hour, ringed by heavily armed security while the entire neighborhood was sealed off.

Photo: Al-Jazeera.  Maliki's security detail on his victory tour of Baghdad.

Maliki's McCain Moment (Credit: al-Bawaba, which no doubt stole it from somebody else)

He declared victory over the "terrorist organizations and militias":  "we have achieved victory against terrorist groups and militias. Things will not return to the way they were." Because nothing says "life has returned to normal" better than a heavily armed security detail and a totally sealed off neighborhood.   

But here's something interesting.  Virtually all the photos which I saw running in Arab and Iraqi sites showed the security detail.  But look at these photos, all from Reuters:

If you saw those pictures, you wouldn't know about the heavy security detail or the shut-down neighborhood, would you? In fact, not a single photo which showed up on the Yahoo news photos archive when I accessed it this morning showed the security detail.   Give the man some credit - between the "bottom-up reconciliation" gambit and the "market stroll" photo op, he's clearly learning the American media politics game.  Who said we can't export that stuff?

Comments

[Erik]

Reminds me of Bush's visit to San Diego during the fires...

[tin foil]

His security do not have uniforms? Is this the Iraqi division of blackwater?

[Vigilante]

GR8 Post! I'll be linking it!

[Eric Martin]

Doh!

[Yohan]

I can't find this anywhere else in English, can anyone help me out or is this a total blackout?

[aardvark]

Yohan - the links above include AFP and Reuters, just scan through them.

[Jerry]

Wasn't it Saddam Hussein that came up with this particular stunt? Remember, just before the invasion, how he took a stroll around Baghdad to show that everything was cool, or safe, or something? I think McCain stole that idea from Saddam and Maliki just fell for it again.
Or am I not remembering the pre-invasion days very well? Could be.

[anna missed]

This is all so ridiculous, a bit like taking the World Wrestling Federation seriously. Why don't they just rent a movie studio and some actors in costumes and be done with it.

[Yohan]

Thank you Prof. Lynch for pointing that out. Are there any English-language references to Maliki's repudiation/ridicule of national reconciliation?