Baghdad, Iraq – The increasingly rancorous public debate in the United States over the war spilled into Iraq during a news conference Saturday with two visiting lawmakers who are outspoken opponents on the issue.
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime supporter of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who voted against the invasion and has spoken out against the war ever since, said they had come not to air their divergent views but to urge Iraqi politicians to speed up the process of forming a government.
But during questions from reporters, they argued – cordially and pointedly – over such issues as the timing of any withdrawal of U.S. troops and whether their presence is doing more harm than good.
Feingold said he believed “a large troop presence has a tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that the U.S. is here to occupy the country.”
“I think that it’s very possible that the sectarian differences are inflamed by the fact that U.S. troops are here,” he continued, adding that their long- term presence “may well be destabilizing, not stabilizing.”
Asked a question on a different topic, McCain quickly responded: “I believe that premature troop withdrawal is not in consonance with what’s going on on the ground.”
The two senators, considered potential presidential candidates in 2008, were among a seven-member delegation of legislators and governors – five Republicans and two Democrats – who met Saturday with Iraqi leaders such as President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari and with U.S. commanders.
Their visit came as more violence was reported across Iraq, including an incident that took place last week in the western city of Ramadi.
Armed insurgents burst into teacher Khidhir al-Mihallawi’s classroom at Sajariyah High School on Wednesday, accused him of being an agent for the CIA and Israeli intelligence and beheaded the English instructor in front of the students, according to students, fellow teachers and a doctor at a local hospital.
One teacher, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared retaliation from insurgents, said that most students ran from the classroom but that some stayed to watch.
Many stopped coming to the school after the incident, he said.
Elsewhere in Iraq, police south of Baghdad found at least 10 bodies of people who had been shot to death, their hands bound.
East of Baghdad, four people were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle.
And in the town of Mahmoudiya, police said Sunni insurgents fought for several hours with members of a Shiite militia loyal to influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leading to the detention of several insurgents.
