Kagen Returns From Mission To Iraq, Says Our Troops Deserve To Come Home, Too
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Congressman Steve Kagen, M.D. arrived home from a visit by a bi-partisan mission to U.S. troops in the Middle East yesterday, saying our servicemen and women in Iraq have performed with incredible skill, honor and courage, and they deserve to come home safely and soon.
“I saw first hand the courage and resolve of our soldiers,” Kagen said. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Now, we should honor their service by bringing them home safely to the heroes’ welcome they have earned.”
Kagen spent five days on a visit to the region to review U.S. military, political, and reconstruction efforts. He first shared the details of his trip with Governor Jim Doyle and Brigadier General Donald Dunbar, adjutant general of the Wisconsin National Guard.
“It’s time to move our troops away from Iraq’s centuries old religious civil war. We need them here at home to protect and defend our own borders,” Kagen said.
Kagen toured Sadr City, a key battleground in Baghdad, and met with Commanding General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The congressional delegation also visited Umm Qasr, a port city in southern Iraq that was the site of one of the first major military operations in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has since played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian supplies to Iraqi civilians.
In Baghdad, U.S. officials responsible for inspecting and overseeing reconstruction efforts told the delegation it was extremely difficult to trace how our tax money was being spent, as receipts are often missing and they have been unable to inspect the buildings due to security concerns. The Army Corps of Engineers also reported that facilities once constructed were poorly maintained or were abandoned due to construction deficiencies.
“We should be building new courthouses in Wisconsin with our hard earned tax dollars – not in Baghdad,” Kagen commented.
Kagen also traveled to Israel, where he met with security officials and visited Sderot, a town on the Gaza border that has been shelled repeatedly by more than 7,000 homemade Palestinian rockets. In Prague, Congressman Kagen discussed a U.S. and NATO sponsored missile defense system to be based in the Czech Republic, as well as energy and economic issues.
Kagen is scheduled to return to Wisconsin when Congress begins August recess.
