The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

January 7, 2008

Coleman optimistic after Iraq trip

Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Recent military success in Iraq has made space for economic and political advancement, Sen. Norm Coleman said Monday after his latest trip, but it’s not clear that the fledgling nation is moving quickly enough.

“The surge has created some possibilities, but I left with the sense that the gains are still fragile,” he said on a conference call with reporters.

The troop buildup, along with a largely Sunni movement to root out al-Qaida fighters, has caused what Coleman called an “indisputable” decrease in violence.

Only 21 U.S. troops died in Iraq in December, the second-lowest monthly total during the war.

But most of the political progress to make these gains permanent hasn’t happened.

There’s no agreement on how oil revenue will be divided, laws to govern foreign investment or even a universal acknowledgment of the rule of law.

Coleman praised a recent move to reinstate pensions of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party as a step towards reconciliation, but said Congress expects faster progress.

Another concern: Will the estimated 71,000 citizen fighters — many of whom are former insurgents — who have helped put al-Qaida on the run turn out to be friend or foe in 2008?

But the military progress led Coleman to say that it ought to be America’s goal to transition to a “secondary military position” by the end of this year.

Coleman discussed that goal with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who said he wasn’t comfortable making that prediction.

Still, he said it’s important for the public to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq, even if troops will be there for a “long time.”

Those troops, he hopes, will be taking secondary roles to Iraqi troops, not mediating bloody sectarian conflicts.

In addition to visits with numerous government officials, Coleman went on a walk in a market in a former al-Qaida stronghold. He bought some bread, had a cup of tea and chatted with farmers and children.

There were checkpoints and armed soldiers around, so it was “not the farmers’ market in St. Paul.”

Coleman’s message was similar to his September trip — the situation in Iraq is improving, but needs to improve faster.

On the lighter side, he noted that Minnesota troops are providing security for Gen. Petraeus, who is “surrounded by Minnesota nice every day.”

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