McMorris says war in Iraq is right

A trip to Iraq last weekend reinforced for Rep. Cathy McMorris her belief that the U.S. military is doing the right thing, at the right time, in the Middle East. But it also convinced her that the Iraqis need to step up to the challenge of protecting and running their own country.

“What we’re doing in Iraq is very important for our national security,” McMorris said Tuesday during an interview in her Spokane office. “In my mind, it’s much better to be fighting this war on their turf than on our turf.”

The freshman congresswoman was one of three House members who left Washington, D.C., on Friday morning on a Defense Department tour and arrived in Iraq on Saturday morning. They visited an Air Force base at Tallil, made several stops around Baghdad, flew by helicopter to Tikrit, then spent the night in Kuwait. On Sunday they stopped in Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany on the way back to the United States.

During the trip McMorris talked with troops deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base on the West Plains, and Fort Lewis near Tacoma, and with Iraqis being trained as police officers. At one point, the group flew in helicopters over Baghdad “so low that we had to go up to get over a power pole.”

The trip provided her with a better idea of what’s happening, she said, but was still just “a glimpse” of the war.

“When you’re there on the ground, you get a very positive reaction from the people you meet,” she said.

McMorris has long supported President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and to keep American troops in the country. Nothing she saw on the trip changed that.

“Iraq is better off and we are better off because Saddam is behind bars,” she said during the interview. It’s important for U.S. troops to stay, she added, to prevent Iraq from falling under the control of a new dictator who could turn the country into a safe harbor for terrorists who could try something similar to Sept. 11.

Some high-ranking military leaders are warning that American combat troops could be fighting in Iraq in 2012 or beyond. McMorris said she doesn’t know how long the United States should expect to keep combat troops in Iraq but believes right now they are giving a new government the chance to form.

“I think our goal should be to get Iraq to a point where it is self-governing,” she said. “After that, I think we could expect a much smaller presence, but still some military forces.”

But the Iraqis need to take more responsibility for rebuilding their country and cutting down the nation’s unemployment rate, which is estimated at more than 50 percent, she said. “They need to be taking more control.”

McMorris differs somewhat on Iraq from her likely election opponent, Okanogan rancher Peter Goldmark. In an interview during the Spokane County Democratic Convention, Goldmark also was leery of setting up a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops but would favor leaving as soon as the Iraqis forming a viable government .

“I would push for having the Iraqis take an increasing responsibility for their own security,” Goldmark said. “We’ve been there three years, and we need them to step up to the plate.”

Some of the troops McMorris met were in Iraq three years ago, had re-enlisted and were on a second tour of duty. “They thought it was important work and were very positive about what they had accomplished,” she said.

Soldiers told her they have better equipment and better living conditions compared with early in the war. They also reported seeing a more deadly version of the improvised explosive devices, she said.

She said she’d like to return for a longer stay, to spend more time talking to troops, and to talk with Iraqi citizens and their leaders.