4 in delegation visit Guard in Iraq
Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2008
WASHINGTON — Four members of Arkansas’ six-member congressional delegation wound up a weekend trip to Iraq convinced that the military situation there has improved but the war-scarred country’s political situation remains fragile.
The trip was the second time Reps. Mike Ross, Marion Berry and Sen. Mark Pryor visited Iraq. It was the eighth visit for Rep. John Boozman, the only Republican member of the Arkansas delegation.
Reviewing political and military progress took a back seat to what was more of a “thank you” visit. The group’s main priority was to visit with members of the Arkansas National Guard’s 39 th Infantry Brigade, which is in the middle of its second deployment to Iraq.
Ross said he organized the trip “simply to let them know we support them and thank them for their service to our country.” During the brigade’s previous tour in Iraq, there were widespread reports that soldiers were not well provided for. This time, Berry reported, “We didn’t hear hardly any complaints.” Said Ross: “They’re getting the equipment they need, but a lot of it is worn out.” Pryor said that when he last visited Iraq, in 2006, the brigade was relentlessly harassed by snipers and suicide bombers.
“Two years ago, they were in the thick of it,” he said. “Today it is a lot quieter. The intensity level is way down.” Pryor and the other lawmakers agreed that the military has made progress in reducing attacks. But they were less sure about how ready the Iraqi army is to take up the security burden and expressed doubts about the country’s political stability.
Boozman said that the political situation seemed better, but warned: “All of this is very fragile.” The group left Washington, D. C., Friday afternoon and arrived in Iraq, by way of Kuwait, in time for a dinner with members of the 39 th Saturday evening.
After a breakfast with more Guard members Sunday morning, they were briefed on the 39 th’s situation in Iraq by brigade commander Col. Kendall Penn and Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford, Arkansas’ state adjutant general, who made the trip with the members of Congress.
The group then attended a briefing by U. S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, who has been tapped to lead the U. S. military’s Central Command, and U. S. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, in Baghdad’s international Green Zone.
A meeting with the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, had to be canceled because Crocker attended meetings with members of the Iraqi parliament as that body tried to reach a budget agreement.
The members then made a stop in Italy, and are expected to return to the United States today.
The failure of the country’s government body to come to a budget agreement illustrated the political differences that have made governing difficult.
Pryor, who noted the country has yet to establish a policy on distributing oil revenue and has not secured consistent electrical power and water for its citizens, said Petraeus coined a new term with the Arkansas lawmakers present: “Iraqracy.” “We cannot establish an American-style democracy in Iraq today,” Pryor said. “It will be a democracy in its own way.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
