Sali, Minnick agree on progress in Iraq War

WASHINGTON - After his first trip to Iraq since his 2006 election, Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, said the country is growing more stable and the military surge has provided more security.

"There's so much to be hopeful about in Iraq," Sali told the Idaho Statesman on Friday, adding that he believes a stable Iraq will be a strong U.S. ally in the region. "The benefits to the United States are worth the investment we're putting in there."

Iraqis "know that they've got to get this done, and I believe they want to get it done," Sali said. "Increasingly, they're starting to recognize themselves more as Iraqis instead of sectarian designations that they've had in the past."

Sali and several other congressmen flew this week to Kuwait, then Baghdad. They were in and around the city's Green Zone and then visited some forward operating bases, Sali said. They focused attention on military health care facilities.

He said he was impressed with the level of health care provided to U.S. troops. Within 15 hours of a battlefield casualty, troops are being treated at a military hospital in Germany, Sali said.

Down the road, the quality of care people are receiving when they're injured will need to translate into superior veterans' care, he said.

It will mean "a veteran's system that's going to look much different going forward," he said.

Sali said that he continues to hear diverging viewpoints from constituents on the U.S.'s continuing involvement in Iraq, but added that many people are more focused on high gas prices than the war.

Sali's general election opponent, Democrat Walt Minnick, said he, too, thought that the surge has brought stability to Iraq. The leadership of the U.S. military commander, Gen. David Petraeus, has made it possible to consider reducing the U.S. presence, Minnick said.

He also said he's encouraged by how the country's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, wants to discuss a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.

"I find it interesting that the political leadership of both parties is coalescing around this view," Minnick said, describing it as a situation where the U.S. can leave with honor and "a stable situation behind us."

Sali's Republican House colleague from Idaho, Rep. Mike Simpson, also visited Iraq at the end of July with a bipartisan group of congressmen who sit on the Appropriations Committee.

On his trip, Simpson met with the ambassador, Ryan Crocker, Petraeus and Iraqi government officials.

He also met with troops from Idaho. Simpson said the situation had visibly improved from the last time he visited in 2004, with violence down and the political situation getting better.

Erika Bolstad: (202) 383-6104