Did you hear? It was an Easter blessing! Yes, we can all thank Christ that North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry was NOT in a gym located in the Iraqi Green Zone when it was struck by rocket fire just moments after he was denied entry. In a video placed on YouTube and his congressional website, the freshman congressman mentioned his luck and even pointed to one of the locations that had been struck. It sounds like a perfect CNN segment to squeeze between the revelation that Princess Diana was killed by reckless driving 11 years ago and critical praise of Britney Spears saying “sex” to Neil Patrick Harris on “How I Met Your Mother.” Why hasn’t it received more coverage?

It’s because McHenry is potentially in an assload of trouble following his stint in amateur videography. Like Donald Duck covering his crotch after his shirt is yanked off, McHenry quickly pulled the video from the internet after allegations that his statements were in violation of Operations Security (OPSEC) in Iraq. McHenry’s whole trip to Iraq appears to have backfired now, starting with a disparaging comment that McHenry made about a contractor who barred him access to the gym in question. While that comment merely adds another red prick tattoo to McHenry’s public record, his autofellating documentary of the rocket attack is far more worrisome. Two days after the video was broadcast, another rocket attack on the same area left two U.S. soldiers dead and 17 other people wounded. In addition to McHenry’s potential culpability in the death of American soldiers, his gaffe leads to questions about the dubious utility of politicians’ visits to the war zone in general.

This isn’t the first time an overzealous public figure has broken military protocol in order to inject drama into his experience. McHenry’s dimwitted tongue-waggling in Iraq recalls the infamous 2003 “map in the sand,” in which Geraldo Rivera scrawled troop positions visible to anyone with access to cable. Although Geraldo was able to recover and at least squeeze out a position of berating Sean Hannity’s jingoism on Fox News, it doesn’t appear likely that McHenry will be as lucky if this story breaks out of the 32nd page of the newspapers. Nor should he be. Even if he doesn’t have blood on his hands, McHenry should never have been in Iraq in the first place unless it was to fight.

Being sequestered in the fortified Green Zone for two or three days before catching a lift back to fantasyland America does not qualify a politician as any braver, more concerned, or more aware of events or trends in the country. Like John McCain’s notorious stroll through Baghdad under flak jacket, armed guard, and helicopter cover, McHenry’s visit to the Green Zone does not shed any new light on the conflict for the American public. When I see such videos pieced together like a soundstage moon landing, I wonder how the protective resources of manpower, armor, and surveillance could have been better spent protecting those actually risking their lives.

Nor do these Iraqi weekend retreats cause me to respect these politicians’ positions on the War, regardless of whether they support it or oppose it. I’m no more likely to listen to a 32-year-old Bush rimmer’s assessment of the Iraq War than I am to listen to John McCain’s rosy picture of the situation. I listen to journalists who have been embedded in the war-torn country for years. I pay attention to the unfathomably brave Iraqi citizen journalists who risk their lives to shoot images of car bombings. I read the writings of soldiers who have returned home after a second tour. I listen to the generals giving testimony before congress and at press conferences.

Unless McHenry is going into Basra with desert camo and a rifle, I don’t want this pudgy Eddie Deezen-faced twat gallivanting around Iraq on my dollar. Even if his remarks had nothing to do with the deadly Easter Sunday rocket attacks, his presence in Iraq was superfluous at best and insulting at worst. I support the War in Iraq because I have evaluated its implications and necessity based on five years of sources that I respect enough to render my own position. And I’m happy to say that no inane blather from a politician, whether in a sky-blue polo in the Green Zone or from behind a presidential podium has helped me arrive at that sentiment.