Heller sees progress, challenges in Iraq

WASHINGTON — The U.S. troop surge is showing signs of success in Iraq but the complex political landscape could prove to be the undoing of the rebuilding nation, Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev.., said Monday after spending the weekend meeting leaders and troops.

Heller said he saw signs of military success and rebuilding that were encouraging during a two-day visit.

But also he saw signs that raised questions as to how long it might take Iraqi leaders to govern successfully or to finish assembling replacement forces for U.S. soldiers that Americans overwhelmingly want out of danger.

“I see some real successes there, but the downside is the political side,” Heller said from Ramstein Air Base in Germany on his way back to the United States.

The trip was Heller’s first to Iraq, along with five other House freshmen.

Heller said he was encouraged by a tour through the city of Ramadi that the U.S military considers a success story of the “surge” that sent an additional 28,500 troops to Iraq in recent months.

Ramadi, a city of 400,000 about 70 miles west of Baghdad, was a one-time haven for insurgents and terrorists but most have been captured, killed or chased away.

“Four months ago, you could not set foot in Ramadi,” Heller said. “It was completely controlled by al-Qaida, but from the surge itself they were able to clear out the inner areas,” going door-to-door when necessary.

Heller said the city looked as bombed out as Germany at the end of World War II, but people were able to walk around freely downtown and Iraqis were seen working to rebuild electrical, water and sewer lines.

“We’ve spent four years figuring out what we were going to do in Iraq, and we didn’t figure it out until the last six months,” Heller said. “The surge is producing results, and it is moving in the right direction.”

But also during the weekend, the lawmakers visited wounded U.S. soldiers at a military hospital, including one new arrival who was injured in the backside when an improvised explosive device detonated next to his vehicle.

And Heller said he was told by some service members from Nevada that Iraqis “say it is time for us to leave. The Iraqi people at this point think this is an occupancy and they want the Americans out.”

“The downside is we are still in a very difficult war,” Heller said.

Heller has voted in Congress for the troop surge and against bills that would set timetables for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq. He has argued the surge should be given time to work before mission changes are considered.

“I will continue to stand my ground and I will continue to support this particular campaign,” Heller said, at least until Congress receives a formal progress report in September from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq.

Heller said the lawmakers had dinner with Petraeus on Saturday night, and got “hints” that the general “is trying to figure out how to make changes and how to take the war in a different direction.”