Rose Colored Glasses

Disingenuous - not candid or sincere, typically pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.

This must surely be the case with John McCain and Mike Pence. Neither one of these smart, passionate Republicans can possibly be so ignorant of the truth about the reality in Baghdad outsite the green zone. What do they know or are they really, literally looking at Iraq through Rose Colored Glasses. This was "See no Evil," and "Hear no Evil," on tour in the markets of Baghdad as reported by the New York Times this morning.

Of course, security is important for any high ranking government official, an accepted reality since the '60's but to venture out in to Shorja to find

"evidence that the new security plan for the city is working,"

as

100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead,

surely means that somebody knows something that they don't want us to know. When this kind of security is needed to observe what Mike Pence called,

"a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime"

he must not be telling us really what he sees. Again from the Times:

The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

In their follow-up story on McCain's and Pence's visit to the market place, The Times reporters interviewed several merchants.

“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!”

“They paralyzed the market when they came,” Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday. “This was only for the media.”

He added, “This will not change anything.”

So according to Pence and McClain, supported by many in the New Republican Party, we are to believe that the situation is improving, and progress is being made towards Winning the endless War in Iraq. Representative Pence and Senator McClain, can I borrow your Rose Colored Glasses? I'd like to visit New Orleans.