Feingold reports no ground made against insurgency
By KATHERINE M. SKIBA
kskiba@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 28, 2006

Washington - Sen. Russ Feingold, after a weekend trip to Iraq, said Tuesday that in many ways, he found the security situation "significantly worse" than when he first visited in February 2005.

"I heard nothing to believe the insurgency is weaker than a year ago," he said.

Feingold was in a bipartisan group of congressmen led by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The Republican governors of Alabama, Minnesota and Utah also were along. Under heavy security Saturday and Sunday, they met with U.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad, Fallujah and Hillah.

On Tuesday, Feingold and several other lawmakers who visited Iraq recently met with President Bush at the White House. According to Feingold, key points included the need for Iraqis to form a national unity government and the bid to get other countries in the region more engaged in Iraq, including financially.

Feingold said nothing he heard or saw on the trip led him to back away from his call last year for the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq with a flexible timetable of Dec. 31, 2006. He still believes that the "heavy presence" of U.S. forces is fueling insurgents.

"We're fine militarily - we win every battle we're in," he said. But he remains troubled by the high number of insurgent attacks - as many as 70 a day - and said he and others are appalled that the Iraqis have not formed a government after parliamentary elections in December.

One Marine commander told Feingold that the Iraqis, including security and police forces, can't point to a government to whom they can be loyal. Troubling, too, are sectarian attacks amid reports that the Interior and Defense ministries "are corrupt and perhaps even promoting the violence against other Iraqis," Feingold said.

He said U.S. commanders told lawmakers that the problems rooted out of Fallujah had just moved up the Euphrates River to Ramadi. He said al-Qaida in Iraq operates like a crime syndicate and executes people who stand up to them.

Feingold also had lunch with Wisconsin Marines in Fallujah.
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