John Shadegg: “I want to compliment both my colleague from Michigan and my colleague from New Mexico for their leadership on this issue…”

“I want to compliment both my colleague from Michigan and my colleague from New Mexico for their leadership on this issue and for helping carry the message to the American people that what we have done in Iraq is working and that it has been a struggle that has been well worthwhile. As my colleague from Michigan well knows, I went with him to Iraq in August, and we were there largely before any Members got in. We spent 3 days. For anyone who has been there, it is a tremendous education to go and to meet the people and to see the progress that is being made. We were there early on. It was interesting to me, you were discussing the threat that is posed to anyone who goes to Iraq right now. When we went, we were freely allowed to travel by helicopter and did indeed travel by helicopter from the Baghdad International Airport to downtown Baghdad and around downtown Baghdad and then to each of the other places that we visited. My colleague from New Mexico mentioned having taken about 5 hours of video. I think I took about 20 hours of video, in part because that is what we were allowed to do.”