Reid: ‘This place is devastated’

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The United States needs to focus on four goals in Iraq -- security, reconstruction and political and economic stability, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after spending Tuesday in the war-torn capital of Baghdad.

Reid said he was shaken by the destruction of the country caused by by former leader Saddam Hussein's policies and by the U.S. military.

"The place is devastated," Reid said in a telephone interview with Nevada reporters Tuesday, speaking from Georgia in the former Soviet Union, mid-way through an eight-day overseas congressional trip. "It is going to take years to reconstruct Iraq."

Each of the four goals poses massive challenges for the United States, Reid said. Rebuilding the economy is a daunting task given the violence, demolished infrastructure and rampant unemployment, he said.

"It (economy) is a mess, to say the least," Reid said.

Reid is leading a delegation of five Democrats and two Republican senators on a trip to examine security and issues in developing democracies that took them to Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then to Kuwait via Jordan, Iraq, and Georgia, Reid said. The senators are scheduled to meet Thursday with newly elected Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko in Kiev before a brief stop in France to meet with military officials and a scheduled Saturday return.

In Iraq, the senators met with U.S. military officials as well as Kurdish and Sunni leaders.

Reid also met with Nevada reservists from the Henderson-based Nevada National Guard 1864th Transportation unit, including a junior high school teacher from Elko. Reid described them as mostly lonely young men who want to get home. A few asked Reid to contact their loved ones.

"I've got several phone calls to make to wives and mothers," Reid said.

The soldiers appear well-trained and generally well-supplied, Reid said, although it was noted to Reid that some vehicle armor was not scheduled to arrive for four months. For soldiers awaiting that armor in a unit that trucks supplies to fellow soldiers, "every day is an eternity," Reid said.

The Nevada senator reiterated a call for a clearer U.S. plan for an eventual exit in Iraq. But he also said U.S. military forces could not begin a withdrawal until more stability has taken hold.

Security measures in Iraq are extreme, Reid said. Drivers routinely weave their cars to avoid being an easy target, he said. Reid attended a press conference in Iraq where 15 to 20 members of the media asked questions while about 50 law enforcement officers stood watch "guns at the ready."

Reid said it seemed nearly everyone -- people of all ages -- were armed.

"Every place you went there were people with guns," Reid said.