Congressman Norm Dicks traveled with Representative John Murtha on his recent trip to Iraq. Upon his return, he adopted the same line that many Democrats are using nowadays:
“There is a sense of normalcy you didn’t see before. In that sense, the surge is being successful,” Dicks, D-Bremerton, said. “But there is no success on political reconciliation. From that standpoint, it’s not working.”
But Dicks’s comments were tempered with a dose of realism when it comes to assessing the Iraqi government–and the U.S. Congress:
He reminded Maliki and his ministers that they need to pass legislation on sharing oil revenues and power among Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. “But I felt kinda embarrassed telling the Iraqis they had to get their act together and pass legislation when we can’t do it back here,” he said.
Dicks also had nice things to say about one of the Republican contenders for president:
While in Iraq, Dicks and the other Democrats bumped into a group of pro-war Republicans led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is running for president. McCain had argued for a much bigger troop presence from the start. Now, Dicks said, the escalation’s impact on insurgent attacks shows that the Pentagon’s initial failure to use overwhelming force “was a deadly mistake that they and the president compounded.” “You have to give McCain credit,” Dicks said, adding with a laugh, “I hate to do that.”
Is that an endorsement?
