Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron , has visited Iraq for the sixth time, and says he had hoped to find enough progress to declare a victory there. King says after spending a couple of days in intense conversations with leaders in Iraq, he can’t say that we’ve achieved victory in Iraq.
"I can tell you that I can see what it looks like, at least from the information that I’ve gathered," King said. King says the deaths among soldiers from combat has dropped significantly.
He says the data he looked at showed the accidental deaths equaled the combat deaths, and not because there was a significant increase in accidental deaths, just that combat deaths have gotten that low. King says that’s a good sign. King revisited comments he made about the safety of Iraq that have drawn criticism.
"A few years ago I said that it was more dangerous for my wife to live in Washington, D.C. than it was for the average Iraqi. And I can show you that data yet, it was true the day I said it and it’s even more true today," King says.
King says he did not say it was safer to live in Bahgdad because he did not have the data. But he says it is safer today in Baghdad than Detroit and Detroit is safer than Washington, D.C. King says the problems in Iraq have continued to drop. He says the levels of violence are low enough that if they can be sustained, then the Iraqis can transition into taking over all of their own security. King represents the fifth district in western Iowa.