By Scott Wright

Congressman Mike Rogers left for Iraq last Tuesday. The Republican from Saks who represents the Third District, which includes Cherokee County, said the following in a statement released by his press office on the day of his departure: "I hope to get a first-hand account of the progress our troops have made since my last visit. Given the enormous sacrifices our loved ones have made in support of the War on Terror it is vital the citizens of the Third District know what's really going on over there."

He continued: "When I return, I plan to hold several town hall meetings on my visit and discuss with folks all across East Alabama what I saw. Hopefully, my visit will shed greater light on the real progress our troops are making in that country, and could help provide glimpses of the good Americans are doing which may not be reported by the mainstream media."

Rogers has visited Iraq once before, in October 2003. In a story that appeared in the Nov. 3, 2003 issue of The Post, Rep. Rogers said he came home from Iraq with two main observations: that Iraq "was still a dangerous place," and that "the troops are doing well."

Rogers went on to say he could tell the Bush administration needed "to do something quickly to alleviate the strain" on our National Guard and Reserves.

"While none of the soldiers I met were complaining about their service," he told The Post, "they did express a desire to know when they are going home."

Well, that was two years ago and "mainstream media" reports aside, the Bush administration hasn't done a darned thing in all that time to alleviate the strain on the National Guard or the Reserves, much less try to figure out a way to bring them home anytime soon. In fact, according to a report in the Aug. 10 edition of USA Today, thousands more American troops -- mostly part-timers, I suspect, since the Army and Marines are spread exceedingly thin and have already announced they will miss their recruiting goals for the year -- will soon be headed to Iraq to handle the expected increase in violent attacks and car bombings as the interim government closes in on the deadline for creating and approving an Iraqi constitution.

I am hopeful Rep. Rogers will come back and tell us what the hell, exactly, is going on over there -- the unreported good and bad.

Speaking of the bad, I'd sure there are a lot of folks in Ohio -- particularly those of the 14 Marine Reserve troops who died last week in what the Washington Post called "the deadliest roadside bombing of the Iraq war" -- who would appreciate some sort of explanation as to why their sons, brothers and nephews were riding through the streets of one of the deadliest cities in the world in a lightly armored Marine landing craft called an Amtrac, which was blown 40 feet into the air by a roadside bomb before landing on its roof and exploding in a fireball of fuel and ammunition which killed everyone inside.

Hopefully the congressman can give us an answer from the defense secretary about that, since the "mainstream media" has been reporting for over two years that our soldiers in Iraq lack the proper armor protection for their vehicles. Maybe Rogers can also ask Rumsfeld why, instead of riding in the same unarmored landing craft and Humvees he has been supplying his soldiers to patrol in for all this time, the SecDef rides in a $250,000 privately-manufactured, specially-designed armored vehicle.

According to an article on the website Corpswatch.com, "When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq (in 2004) to tour the Abu Ghraib prison camp, military officials did not rely on a government-issued Humvee to transport him safely on the ground. Instead, they turned to Halliburton, the oil services contractor, which lent the Pentagon a rolling fortress of steel called the Rhino Runner.

"Unlike the Humvee, the Pentagon's vehicle of choice for American troops, the others were designed from scratch to withstand attacks in battlefields like Iraq with no safe zones. Last fall, for instance, a Rhino traveling the treacherous airport road in Baghdad endured a bomb that left a six-foot-wide crater. The passengers walked away unscathed."

None of those Ohio Reservists walked away, unscathed or otherwise. As of June 2005, according to Corpswatch.com, "only one in six Marine Humvees is armored at the highest level of protection."

That's another question I want to ask Rep. Rogers when he gets back from Iraq: did the American soldiers he spoke with ask him about getting more and better armored vehicles? If so, what did he tell them?

I'd also like to know if Rep. Rogers saw any signs of the ongoing corruption that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse says Vice President Dick Cheney's former company is perpetrating in Iraq.

According to Mrs. Greenhouse, Halliburton currently has several exclusive, multi-billion dollar contracts to supply a wide variety of services to our fighting men and women in Iraq -- from food and fuel to logistics and major construction projects -- and is charging an obscene multiple of what that service should be costing the American taxpayers in the first place. That's assuming the work is being done properly, which in many cases, apparently, it is not. At least, that's what Mrs. Greenhouse stood up and swore to the United States Congress a few weeks ago.

Specifically, she said the corruption she uncovered represents "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."

I want to ask Rep. Rogers if he saw any evidence of that corruption while he was in Iraq.

According to a poll in the Aug. 15 issue of Newsweek magazine, 61 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way the Bush administration is handling the war in Iraq; only 40 percent believe America is making progress there.

Sixty-four percent of Americans think the fighting in Iraq has actually made our country more susceptible to terrorism. I am someone who's been of all those opinions since those numbers were about half what they are now, and I'm hopeful the sharp increase in dissent in recent weeks means that the GOP and the White House will finally stop ignoring and dismissing as "unpatriotic" anyone who disagrees with this war and give us answers to some of the hard questions the "mainstream media" are (rightly) asking.

Not that Rep. Rogers has ever come off to me as one of those raging, nearsighted neocons. In his defense, he has not. For that reason, I feel I can expect honest answers from the congressman when ask him if the sea change in the attitude of the folks back home is having any impact on the morale of the soldiers. Go see him at one of those town hall meetings he's planning to hold after he gets back. Ask him whatever you feel like the "mainstream media" isn't telling us back at home; I believe Mike Rogers will tell you straight-up, good or bad, if he knows the answer.

I plan to ask Rep. Rogers all the questions I've posed in this column, along with a dozen more, when he returns from Iraq. And I fully expect he'll give me honest answers.

I say this about the congressman's honesty because he is a good fellow, near as I can tell; he has always been more than willing to talk with me about topics he knows the two of us disagree on. Besides, Rogers hasn't been in Washington long enough to become corrupted like some of his seniors in the House and Senate. Mike Rogers is still a good, honest man and honest to goodness I hope he quits politics or gets voted out of office before he gets turned into anything else. I mean that sincerely.

In the meantime, though, I know I'll get a straight answer from Rep. Rogers about what he saw and heard while he was in Iraq. I have an appointment to speak with the congressman on Aug. 23. I'll let you know what he has to say.
 

Scott Wright is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and an award-winning member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a native of Cherokee County.