{"id":2223,"date":"2007-09-11T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T22:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/back-from-iraq-pearce-says-troop-surge-has-helped\/"},"modified":"2007-09-11T16:48:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-11T22:48:00","slug":"back-from-iraq-pearce-says-troop-surge-has-helped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/back-from-iraq-pearce-says-troop-surge-has-helped\/","title":{"rendered":"Back from Iraq, Pearce says troop surge has helped"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/RucbafsLiaI\/AAAAAAAADWg\/S7049vEXv08\/s1600-h\/Pearce,+Steve.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/RucbafsLiaI\/AAAAAAAADWg\/S7049vEXv08\/s200\/Pearce,+Steve.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109082444272470434\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/pearce.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M. and a strong supporter of the president\u2019s strategy in Iraq, returned Monday from his fourth trip to the war-torn nation saying \u201cthere is reason for cautious optimism,\u201d according to a news release.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cNo one is over there saying \u2018OK, this is easy now,\u2019 but they are saying there has been improvement in security, the ability to engage in commerce and cooperation between our coalition forces and Iraqi citizens,\u201d Pearce said. \u201cI left <st1:country-region st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> believing the troop surge of the last few months has made a real difference and given ordinary Iraqis hope where there was just despair and mistrust before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">During the four-day trip, Pearce met with a number of military commanders and also met with two solders from <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:placename st=\"on\">Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> <st1:placename st=\"on\">Ana<\/st1:placename> <st1:placename st=\"on\">County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> &#8211; Jeffery Williams of Las Cruces and Garciela Loera of Chaparral. He said the most obvious difference from a trip he made earlier this year is \u201cfreedom of movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cWe toured the market area and walked right down <st1:street st=\"on\"><st1:address st=\"on\">Haifa Street<\/st1:address><\/st1:street>, a major <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:city st=\"on\">Baghdad<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> thoroughfare, which would have been unthinkable just a few months ago,\u201d Pearce said. \u201cPreviously, we would have to travel between <st1:city st=\"on\">Baghdad<\/st1:city> and <st1:country-region st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Kuwait<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> each day. This was the first time we were allowed to stay in <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:city st=\"on\">Baghdad<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cThere is traffic on the roads, the markets are staying open later and families are coming back to <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Baghdad<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the colonels told us, \u2018Kids don\u2019t lie. If the kids are out playing and you see them interacting with security forces, then we are starting to see the trust coming back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Pearce took a number of photographs and some video while in <st1:country-region st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. You can check it out by clicking <a href=\"http:\/\/pearce.house.gov\/newscenter\/2007-09-11-Pearce-Iraq-visit.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. and a strong supporter of the president\u2019s strategy in Iraq, returned Monday from his fourth trip to the war-torn nation saying \u201cthere is reason for cautious optimism,\u201d according to a news release. \u201cNo one is over there saying \u2018OK, this is easy now,\u2019 but they are saying there has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}