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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (13837)	10/25/2003 11:24:50 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793654

This Lady is a Democratic Congresswomen from New York. Amazing how they all come back from Iraq with a different outlook than the one they take over. Military brainwashing, I guess. Bet she catches hell from Pelosi for not toeing the Democratic line. ____________________________________ Carolyn McCarthy's Iraq Blog: Wednesday, October 22, 2003: 2:00pm EST (9:00pm Iraq time) After finishing votes in the House last night, I and the other Congresswomen going on this Iraq trip headed out to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. We boarded a C-40 transport plane (which my Army escorts said is basically a 737) for the long trip to Iraq. The weather was fine and the skies clear, so it should be a nice, easy flight. Because the trip is about 17 hours, we had to switch pilots and refuel a couple of times...but we'll finally arrived in Kuwait City International Airport about 10:00am your time. As anyone over 50 (or pushing 60, like me) will tell you, it takes an older body longer to adjust to time changes. The fact that we're having "dinner" at what feels like noon is a little weird. I suppose we'll all get used to it. The rest of the Congresswomen (all of which are Republicans except myself and one other member) on the trip are proving excellent company. We've been passing the time talking about family, grandchildren, our troops in Iraq...very little discussion of politics, which I'm glad to see. That's the point of this trip, to get away from the politics and see things on a more human level. Unfortunately, I won't get to meet with troops from Long Island until Friday. I'm anxious to see how they're doing. Tomorrow morning (or Wednesday, 11:00am EST), we'll leave Kuwait and fly into Baghdad International Airport. We've got a busy schedule set for Thursday. We'll be meeting with leaders of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) before having dinner with a number of leading Iraqi women. I've always felt that women think about government differently, and I hope to get a better sense of how involved they've been in the new government. Friday 12:30am Kuwait City time (Thursday, 5:30pm EST) Ever since we landed in Baghdad yesterday, I've been amazed at the morale of our troops. I talked to one soldier who said even though we haven't found the weapons of mass destruction, he's convinced that we are in Iraq for the right reasons. He felt that the conditions that the people of Iraq were facing under Hussein were so bad, that even being here just to help them free their country was reason enough. I've got a lot of reservations about the run up to the war in Iraq. Poor intelligence, lack of a coherent message from the Administration and a faulty plan for winning the peace are all problems, but seeing our work with my own eyes has been helpful. We're doing a lot of good over here. We visited a pediatric hospital in Baghdad today. The staff there talked a great deal about their needs for getting a quality hospital up and running. They weren't looking for high-tech gadgets and complicated equipment...what they said they needed the most was training for nurses and doctors. The staff there was just incredible, doing so much under very difficult circumstances. That's one theme I'm hearing over and over here. It's the really basic needs, like water and electricity that people are asking for the most. We've also been meeting with groups of Iraqi women who are seeking a role in the new government over here. I've been so impressed by how much they want to work and get involved in politics. They're struggling with the cultural ideas of what women should be doing, but they're seizing every opportunity they get. They need more of these opportunities, but change won't come overnight. You get a real sense of energy from the people here, like if we can get some of the basic services working, the Iraqi people are ready to take over and get back to where they were before Saddam's reign. I hope it translates into a sooner return home for our troops, too. Tomorrow I'll be meeting with a number of troops from Long Island. I'm really excited to see how they're doing. I should probably head off to bed...it's been a big day and is after 1:00 am here. house.gov