Rep. Melissa Bean with Sgt. Rodney Walters, a Joint Visitors Bureau medic, in Iraq. Photo courtesy Bean’s congressional office.
by Jim Tankersley
Rep. Melissa Bean saw improved security and “military progress” on a visit to Iraq – but nothing that changed her mind about how the ungoing war funding debate should unfold in Washington.
Bean, an Illinois Democrat who has voted in the past to tie war funding to a timeline for troop withdrawal, got a rare firsthand look at America’s elite terrorism-fighting forces on a congressional trip to Baghdad and undiclosed locations beyond last week.
Much of the trip was classified, though Bean did say she met with the commander of American troops in Iraq – Gen. David Petraeus – and leaders of both American and Iraqi special operations forces. She said the Iraqis were “better trained and better prepared” than she observed when she last visited the country two years ago, and that she saw evidence supporting the statistics that show violence has decreased in the country over the last month.
“There was definitely a more relaxed attitude toward security,” she said — which she admitted was both encouraging and disconcerting.
Still, Bean said she continues to wait for Iraqis to progress more toward a stable government – and that she continues to believe that America’s goal should be to redeploy its troops as soon as Iraqis can handle their own security. She continues to support linking war funding to progress benchmarks.
In terms of fighting terrorism in Iraq, she said “there has clearly been progress … but military progress and political progress are two different things.”