Wilson: Restoring order to Iraq will take years

The congressman said he
‘didn’t feel safe’ in Iraq.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson went to Iraq with many concerns.

He came home with even more of them.

Wilson, of St. Clairsville, D-6th, returned to the United States on Monday from a five-day trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Wilson voted in favor of requiring President Bush to begin withdrawing troops in Iraq with most of them home by April 1, 2008. Another vote on funding the war is approaching.

Wilson wanted to see firsthand the U.S. military presence and its impact in those three nations, particularly Iraq.

“It’s a surreal situation,” he said Tuesday.

While traveling in Baghdad, Wilson said there were deep craters in the roads caused by explosives. Also, he said, the number of suicide bombers is on the rise.

“There’s a real sense you have to be on guard in Iraq,” he said.

Wilson went to the Middle East nation to see if there is any progress being made and to see if there’s a reason for a continued presence there of U.S. troops. Wilson couldn’t find a reason to continue to put U.S. soldiers in a dangerous and deadly situation.

He estimates it would take at least 10 years to restore order to Iraq.

“That’s 10 years too long,” he said. “...We don’t have the time or the resources” to remain in Iraq. “The president is calling for more money and more patience, but there’s no political progress. There’s no reason to do this for another 10 years.”

Assessing the area

Wilson, whose district includes Columbiana County and a portion of Mahoning County, said he “didn’t feel safe” while in Iraq.

He and six other House members who took the trip were transported in humvees with gunners in the vehicles.

“The scariest thing over there was the ride to the Iraq outpost,” he said.

As for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Wilson expressed concern about the lack of protection along those countries’ borders.

The six others in Wilson’s group overseas are all Republicans. Wilson said he expects the Republicans came away with different opinions than his.

One of the Republicans on the trip, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Hamilton, R-8th, said the United States is winning the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is experiencing “increasingly positive results.”

Also Tuesday, U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, a Cleveland Republican, unveiled a proposal he hopes will unite both political parties regarding the Iraq war.

A member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Voinovich said his proposal would:

UMake clear that the United States remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future with a responsible reduction in force within 120 days;

UCall for an increased role for the United Nations and U.S. allies in Iraq;

UWould not set an arbitrary deadline for the transition of the mission;

URequire the secretary of defense to report in 180 days a proposed date for completing a transition and plan for reducing instability in Iraq.

Voinovich, who was in Iraq last month, doesn’t have any other senators in complete agreement with his plan but is working toward gathering a consensus.

“This will hopefully satisfy the American people who are fed up with the politics of this,” he added.

skolnick@vindy.com