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# What experience?
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/what-experience-editor/
- Published: 2008-08-29T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:53:49.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Bruce Joffe Piedmont, Calif.*

Experience — even the experience that comes with age, does not necessarily make for good judgment. Take Sen. John McCain for instance. On April 1, 2007, he and three Republican Congressmen made a special tour of the Shorja marketplace in Baghdad. Wearing bulletproof vests, they were accompanied by over 100 soldiers in armored Humvees while attack helicopters circled overhead. The area was sealed off from traffic, and sharpshooters protected the roofs.

After walking down the street, talking amiably with specially selected Iraqi merchants, McCain and colleagues announced at a news conference that Shorja was a safe, bustling place, just like a normal outdoor market in Indiana. McCain said he was deeply moved to be able to mix and mingle unfettered.

If Sen. McCain could be fooled so easily, on April Fools Day no less, then his experience isn’t all that impressive. We don’t need more of the same in the White House.

Later that day, 21 Iraqi workers in the market were abducted.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 29, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)