In Iraq, Boehner draws link to 9/11

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a conference call from Iraq, told reporters Wednesday that it is fair to draw a link from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to the current fight in Iraq because of the continued presence of al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists in the country.

“If you look at where 9/11 came from, it clearly was from al Qaeda, [and] when you look at the violence in Iraq, it’s from al Qaeda [and] radical jihadists,” Boehner said.

{mosads}The minority leader is leading a congressional delegation of six members that departed for Iraq following the testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on the situation there.

Two members of the delegation, Republican Reps. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Pete King (N.Y.), joined Boehner on the conference call and agreed with his assessment.

“There is a strong consensus that [Petraeus’s] testimony was on target,” said King, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee.

Boehner said that in early meetings with a dozen military and diplomatic officers, it was evident to the lawmakers that progress is being made in some of the more troubled regions in Iraq and that the last three months of the president’s troop surge have yielded many successes.

Hoekstra, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said that the lawmakers would also be making trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan so that they can bring further context to Iraq’s role in the region.

Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson (Ohio) and Republicans Patrick Tiberi (Ohio), Tom Latham (Iowa) and Devin Nunes (Calif.) were also on the trip.

Wilson is scheduled to have a solo conference call Thursday with reporters.

Taking a shot at a Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month that detailed less than stellar progress in Iraq, King said the benchmarks in some of the most troubled provinces, where there have been successes, were barely mentioned.

When asked how the delegates could possibly assess the situation in Iraq after having been in the country for only a few hours, Hoekstra shot back that the trip was part of a larger study.

“This isn’t about one briefing, this is my ninth trip … this is about continuing research and study of this issue,” he said.

Boehner, when asked about how the current state of Iraq might affect the 2008 election cycle, stated that Democrats could find themselves in trouble if progress continues to be made.

“Our Democratic colleagues have vested all their political capital in failure in Iraq,” Boehner said. “I’m not sure they know where they are going … the left and the anti-war left, I’m not sure where they go.”