WP: McCain, Feingold Air Views in Iraq

[Kadie]

McCain, Feingold Air Views in Iraq
Visiting Legislators Debate U.S. Policy as Violence Rages

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A14

BAGHDAD, March 25 -- The increasingly rancorous public debate in the United States over the war spilled into Iraq during a news conference Saturday with two visiting lawmakers who are outspoken in their opposing stands on the issue.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime supporter of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who voted against the invasion and has spoken out against the war ever since, said they had come not to air their divergent views but to urge Iraqi politicians to speed up the process of forming a government. But during questions from reporters, they argued -- cordially and pointedly -- over such issues as the timing of any withdrawal of U.S. troops and whether their continued presence is doing more harm than good.

Feingold said he believed "a large troop presence has a tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that the U.S. is here to occupy the country."

"I think that it's very possible that the sectarian differences are inflamed by the fact that U.S. troops are here," he continued, adding that their long-term presence "may well be destabilizing, not stabilizing."


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U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, speaks to reporters in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 25, 2006. Feingold was among the second top-level group of American politicians in less than a week to journey to Baghdad to pressure Iraqi leaders to speed the process of forming a government. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060325/481/bag12703251703

[rodeodance]

1. and we are pumping billions into new bases in Irag!

[rodeodance]

2. Feingold will get blasted (critical of US policy while in Iraq-).

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Sen. Feingold is an honest person and McCain is a bush butt kisser!

Easy enough to discern who has the best interests of the troops and the American public at heart.

[rodeodance]

5. you are right on.

[rodeodance]

4. "There's always been with foreign policy an idea that debate stops at the

With sectarian violence surging across the country since the bombing last month of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, each member of the U.S. delegation visiting Baghdad stressed the urgency of forming a new government. McCain pointed to a dearth of economic development but said he had been encouraged by reports of improvements in Iraq's security forces and a burgeoning rift between Iraqi and foreign insurgents. "The statistics that I see is that slow and steady progress is being made," the Arizona senator said.

Feingold, who recently called for the Senate to censure President Bush over a domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency, said he was dismayed not to hear any of the military commanders he met with mention al-Qaeda as a source of the problems in Iraq. The Bush administration and U.S. officials here often point to the radical group as a major source of instability in the country.

"There seems to be a disconnect between the rhetoric in Washington about what this is all about and what we hear here," Feingold said. McCain responded that he did "not want to get into a back-and-forth with one of my best friends."

"Russ could have been a lot more outspoken," said Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who was part of the visiting delegation. "There's always been with foreign policy an idea that debate stops at the shores. . . . At times today it didn't."

[rodeodance]

6. here--Wpost makes point of how people not suspose to speak against

US policy when on foreign soil.

....U.S. politicians traditionally avoid public disagreements when traveling abroad, particularly in war zones where U.S. troops are engaged. McCain said the argument was better suited for the Senate floor, and Feingold said he would "go into more details when I'm home." The two senators, considered potential presidential candidates in 2008, were among a seven-member delegation of legislators and governors -- five Republicans and two Democrats -- who met Saturday with such Iraqi leaders as President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, and with U.S. military commanders.

Their visit came as more violence was reported across Iraq, including a terrifying incident earlier in the week in the western city of Ramadi. On Wednesday, armed insurgents burst into the classroom of Khidhir al-Mihallawi, an English teacher at Sajariyah High School, accused him of being an agent for the CIA and Israeli intelligence and beheaded him in front of his students, according to students, fellow instructors and a physician at a local hospital.

One teacher, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared retaliation from insurgents, said that most students ran from the classroom but that some stayed to watch. Many stopped coming to school after the incident, he said. Another teacher, who said he moved his mathematics class to his home to accommodate frightened students, said Mihallawi had earlier been threatened because he worked as a translator for U.S. forces in Ramadi, a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

Mihallawi "looked at us just like he was telling us that we do not have to be scared. Even as we were running out of the door, his looks were still telling us that nothing will happen and we do not have to be scared," said a student, whose father asked that his name not be used. "I heard him screaming for a few seconds, then stop screaming."

[rodeodance]

7. Russ is doing the Dixie Chicks--good for him.

[rodeodance]

8. Russ says dismayed --he did not hear commanders talk of alquida!

....Feingold, who recently called for the Senate to censure President Bush over a domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency, said he was dismayed not to hear any of the military commanders he met with mention al-Qaeda as a source of the problems in Iraq. The Bush administration and U.S. officials here often point to the radical group as a major source of instability in the country.

[rodeodance]

9. saying there is a 'disconnect" between WH and what he hears in Irag

..Feingold, who recently called for the Senate to censure President Bush over a domestic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency, said he was dismayed not to hear any of the military commanders he met with mention al-Qaeda as a source of the problems in Iraq. The Bush administration and U.S. officials here often point to the radical group as a major source of instability in the country.

"There seems to be a disconnect between the rhetoric in Washington about what this is all about and what we hear here," Feingold said. McCain responded that he did "not want to get into a back-and-forth with one of my best friends."