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Politics

Area lawmakers interpret testimony differently

By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
Published September 11, 2007

The war in Iraq has dominated their brief time in Congress and looks to dominate their first attempts at re-election as well. As junior members of the House committees that received the long-awaited report on military and political progress in Iraq, both were front and center to see Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is a member of the Armed Services Committee. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

After the daylong testimony, Bilirakis and Castor spoke with the St. Petersburg Times about their impressions of the testimony, their views on Iraq today and their thoughts on what course the United States should take.

Gus Bilirakis

The bottom line: encouraging news.

Bilirakis, 44, said Monday's testimony shored up his belief that the U.S. military is making gains in Iraq. He was most encouraged by Petraeus' testimony showing that local leaders are now helping U.S. forces not only in western Iraq, which has been highly publicized, but also in other areas.

Petraeus said the summer's "surge" of some 30,000 troops, as well as improvements among Iraqi forces, had helped attacks against the military and civilians fall in eight of the past 12 weeks. The al-Qaida terrorist network in Iraq is "certainly not defeated" but is "off-balance."

Civilian Iraqi deaths also have fallen, the general said, and much of the violence that plagued the latter half of 2006 has been slowed.

"It made me feel better," Bilirakis said afterward. "We're winning, we're turning things around, not just in Anbar, but all around Iraq, and I thought this was very important."

He found Petraeus' plan to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq by 30,000 between now and next July "really good."

Like many members of the two committees, Bilirakis expressed frustration that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had yet to pass important reforms aimed at national reconciliation among Iraq's three main groups, the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds.

"We don't have a lot of time to be successful," Bilirakis said. "We've got to listen to the generals. But we cannot keep up the forces due to a lack of military capacity over a long period of time."

Asked if President Bush and the Republicans in Congress are overly invested, politically, in Iraq, and liable to insist on staying well past any chance of success, Bilirakis said no.

"The Republicans have proven that they're doing this for the right reasons," he said. "In 2006 obviously, it was a big issue, and we lost Congress because of it. ... It's still an unpopular war. But it's a war that needs to be won."

Kathy Castor

The bottom line: It's time to come home.

Calling it the Bush-Cheney War in Iraq in a statement she submitted for the record, Castor, 41, said the ongoing commitment in Iraq threatens the security of the United States by pushing the military to the breaking point, and for little gain.

Despite improvements in security that Petraeus outlined, Castor said troubles with the Iraqi government and ongoing sectarian violence have undermined chances to capitalize on American military gains.

"It's not a new strategy, it's not a new direction," she said after Crocker and Petraeus testified. "It's continue on the same course. The only subtle change is that we're going to go back to presurge troop levels, the same as in January."

With more than 100 members on the two committees, the six-hour hearing wasn't long enough to allow the most junior members the chance to quiz Petraeus and Crocker. But Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, gave some of his time to Castor.

"Gentlemen, while the American people have great confidence in the troops, in our brave men and women in uniform, they have totally lost confidence in the top of our national government," Castor said. "The troop surge was supposed to get Iraqi leaders the security and time to bring about national reconciliation. It didn't happen.

"Now, the president's latest spin is (that) a withdrawal could result in another Vietnam. I think the American people want to know, as we're in the fifth year of this war, how much longer, how many billions of dollars more, while we are growing a global strategic risk?"

Petraeus responded: "Congresswoman, if I could, one reason that I did recommend the reduction of forces is because of recognition of the strain on our ground forces. I might point out, by the way, that we could have literally run the surge all the way until April."

Asked if the Democrats are politically invested in failure in Iraq, Castor said no. "I'm hopeful there's some political reconciliation there, but until we see that, unfortunately the military solution is not going to work."

Wes Allison can be reached at allison@sptimes.com or (202) 463-0577.

[Last modified September 11, 2007, 07:11:14]