One of Iowa’s elected leaders in Washington D.C. is planning to visit war zones overseas on a fact-finding mission. Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican from Ames, says he’ll be part of a delegation this fall that will visit Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Latham says a bi-partisan Congressional group will make the trip in September as that’s the time when U.S. military leaders expect to issue a progress report on the "surge" of troops in Iraq. He says he wants to learn first-hand information on the troop situation in the war on terror.
Latham says "I want to be there, on the ground myself, talking to real soldiers to get their honest assessment of whether progress is being made, what we should do going forward. I look forward to that trip. It’s not going to be a lot of fun but it’s something I think is very important." He says he and other members of the delegation will report back to President Bush and to the House and Senate about their findings.