Published: April 17, 2007 12:09 am         

Ellsworth returns from Iraq

Before U.S. troops can withdrawal from Iraq, a stronger judicial and prison system must be implemented by the Iraqi government, said U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., after returning from an eight-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“There is no correctional system. Once somebody is arrested, there is not the other two legs to the stool to make it stable. I don’t know how you overcome that, what the time frame would be to get that up and running,” Ellsworth said Monday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

“That is part of the two legs of the stool that we have to decide if we are going to assemble,” Ellsworth said. “They are doing well in recruiting police and the training, but willingly conceded … that they don’t have the judges, the lawyers, both prosecution and defense attorneys, to hear any cases. You’ve got to have all of those, and a penal system.”

Ellsworth is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He visited Kuwait City, Umm Qasr and Fallujah in Iraq and Bahrain, Afghanistan, among other sites, from April 5-12.

The congressman, like U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., agrees that leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan must make an effort for peace.

“This is not going to be won militarily, it is going to have to be when those countries decide they’re tired of killing each other and want peace in their country,” Ellsworth said. “There is no way we can fight our way into peace in the Middle East.

“There is nothing simple. We got in under a failed plan and we can’t afford to get out under a failed plan. If we knew what we were getting into, we weren’t telling about the power of the tribes in both countries and who has the power and how the power is delved out. It is a tough nut to crack and we haven’t cracked it yet,” Ellsworth said.

“It will take buy-in from their leaders. Not just the government leaders that we recognize … but down to the mayors, governors of the provinces and tribal leaders are going to have to buy in and take some responsibility for what is going on,” he said.

Republicans have criticized Ellsworth for his House vote in March to pass a war-spending bill that includes a requirement that U.S. troops be withdrawn before September 2008. Ellsworth submitted an amendment to remove the timeline, but it did not get to a House vote.

Both the House and Senate, controlled by Democrats, have passed bills to both fund the war and start drawing troops home. They are expected this to week to begin negotiating a final version to send to President Bush.

The Democratic proposal would approve $96 billion in military money, mostly for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and set a timetable for troop withdrawal.

The Senate bill would require a U.S. troop exit in Iraq to begin within 120 days, with a completion goal of March 31, 2008. The House bill would order all combat troops out by Sept. 1, 2008. The president has pledged to veto it if it is not stripped of the provisions to draw down troops.

“With confidence I can say I don’t believe anybody in Congress wants to cut off a red cent that would leave our troops short of anything they need, equipment or weaponry, whatever it might be they need to do their job,” Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth said a House proposal would leave 50,000 troops, but take out combat troops.

“This is not a three-month or one-year or 18-month project. You could be looking at 10, 15 or 20 years,” he said, of some sort of U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan to help with rebuilding of schools, hospitals and restoring electrical power to the country.

More than 3,300 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq War began in March 2003.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.