Iraq Vets Urge ‘Patience’ For Political Reconciliation, Knock War Critics

Carolyn Hileman* | November 10, 2007

By Nathan Burchfiel

(CNSNews.com) - Three veterans of the Iraq war on Thursday said lawmakers who support a quick end to the conflict should exercise patience in waiting for political reconciliation to grow out of increased stability in the region.

“We’re not going to be able to expect the kind of military progress that we’ve had to immediately translate into political reconciliation,” 1st Lt. Pete Hegseth said Thursday at the American Veterans’ Center annual conference in Washington, D.C. “You have to create the space militarily for real political reconciliation and there is no timeline.”

Hegseth served in Iraq in 2005 and is now the executive director of Vets for Freedom, a group that supports keeping troops in Iraq. He said the Iraqi people feel “wounds so deep … that they’re not going to be healed because of a six-month surge.”

“I think we do need to be patient,” Hegseth said, insisting that “you can’t put a definitive timeline on it.”

Hegseth said the “surge” strategy implemented earlier this year has been successful, calling it “finally the right strategy to be using in that country. We’re finally protecting the population at a neighborhood level.” He pointed to the month-to-month decrease in military and civilian deaths since the surge was implemented as evidence of its success.

As Cybercast News Service has previously reported, Pentagon statistics from October showed a decline in monthly deaths, continuing a trend that started in May 2007 when the surge was fully implemented.

Hegseth criticized the media for playing up the fact that 2007 has been the deadliest year for American troops while largely ignoring the positive trend in recent months.

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