Did McCain get Iraqis killed?

Remember John McCain's little stroll through a Baghdad market last week?

BAGHDAD, April 1 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain toured a Baghdad market on Sunday and said afterwards the American people were not being told the "good news" about the war in Iraq.

McCain, a strong supporter of President George W. Bush's plan to send nearly 30,000 more troops as part of his new strategy in Iraq, said the media had a responsibility to report both the positive and the negative in the four-year-old war that is growing increasingly unpopular in the United States.

Reporters in Iraq say they don't show good news because the terrorists then kill the people they report on. And sure enough, I saw this item today in a news recap from Iraq.

The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.

So did McCain get 21 people killed for a photo-op? If this news gets any play, and it is likely to given the flap over his statements, he will be accused of negligence at least.

How much responsibility does he bear, and how does this bear on his presidential aspirations?

If there's more, it's here.