The U.S. military said on November 18, 2003 that it had new information one of Saddam Hussein's most feared lieutenants, Izzat Ibrahim, was involved in some of the attacks that have killed at least 177 U.S. soldiers since the official end of major combat in Iraq on May 1. Ibrahim, pictured during a parade in the city of Mosul, 460 km (285 miles) north of Baghdad in this February 4, 2003 file photo, is the most senior Iraqi still on the run aside from Hussein himself and was considered one of his most ruthless enforcers and trusted confidants. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/files
A U.S. Army soldier adjusts his machine gun while securing an elementary school in the center of Baghdad, Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
A Japanese team of Self-Defense Forces experts is escorted by Dutch soldiers as they leave Samawah's Al-Muthana governorate after meeting local authorities during the first day of their visit to this southern Iraqi town, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003. The team will examine the security situation in preparation for the planned dispatch of Japanese armed forces to this Iraqi region. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton waves as he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the premier's official residence in Tokyo November 18, 2003. Government officials said Koizumi and Clinton were expected to discuss Iraq's reconstruction and North Korea's nuclear weapons program as well as Japan-U.S. relations, reports said. REUTERS/Eriko Sugita
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the premier's official residence in Tokyo November 18, 2003. Government officials said Koizumi and Clinton were expected to discuss Iraq's reconstruction and North Korea's nuclear weapons program as well as Japan-U.S. relations. REUTERS/Eriko Sugita
Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Oct. 28, 2003 file photo. Murtha, a hawkish Democrat who had supported President Bush on Iraq (news - web sites) called upon top Pentagon officials to resign after talking with a Marine blinded in one eye. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Lawmakers Moved by Wounded U.S. Soldiers
Tue Nov 18, 9:42 AM ET
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - When the House voted to stop charging wounded soldiers for their hospital food, it had a lot to do with what Rep. Bill Young's wife heard during a bedside visit with the troops.
And after talking with a Marine blinded in one eye, Rep. John Murtha, a hawkish Pennsylvania Democrat who had supported President Bush on Iraq, urged Bush to fire advisers who helped set U.S. policy there.
Hospital visits have become a wartime rite of passage for many in government, a way for lawmakers to put a face on the issues they vote on and for other officials to see the effects of their policies.
They go to give comfort or thanks, and often leave with a determination to turn the emotional encounters into action, as Young did, or with their views of the war reinforced or even changed.
For lawmakers, seeing the wounded brings the war "a little bit closer to home," said Charles Joyner, a 34-year-old supply sergeant from Lincoln, Kan., who was hospitalized for a skin parasite picked up during his service in Iraq. "It just makes you appreciative of how lucky we have it over here, so it's very important that they see that."
Some lawmakers said their visits reinforced their opinions of the war.
Rep. John Carter, a freshman Republican from Bush's home state of Texas, said he was and remains fully supportive of the president and the "duty we had to liberate Iraq."
"I think history is going to prove very shortly that this is going to be one of the shining lights in American history," said Carter, a regular at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he visits Pfc. Alan Babin, 23, an Army medic from Round Rock, Texas, in his district. Babin was shot in the stomach in March while helping an injured comrade on the Iraqi battlefield.
Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who did not support sending U.S. troops into Iraq without broader international support, is accustomed to seeing bodies that have been battered and broken by war. He is a clinical psychologist who worked in a veterans' rehabilitation clinic before coming to Congress.
"When you see these horrifically injured people who fought with courage and professionalism and you ask yourself, 'Did they really have to be there?' or 'Could we have found another way?' it's a deeply troubling question," Baird said.
Other lawmakers see the visits as part of the job, believing that it's important for them to take the time to personally thank the young men and women for serving their country.
Servicemen and women appreciate the visits too.
"It shows that somebody higher up cares," said Joyner, a father of six who was released recently from Walter Reed, one of two military hospitals in the Washington area.
Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., said her recent visits with hospitalized troops raised questions that she later put to U.S. military brass stationed in Iraq during a congressional trip to the Middle East. Davis, who opposed the war, asked about the availability of body armor, for example, and whether soldiers had enough phone cards to call home.
The topic of discussion in the meetings between lawmakers and wounded troops can even influence legislation. That was the case last month when the House voted unanimously, 399-0, to end the practice of billing troops $8.10 a day for meals when they are hospitalized with combat-related injuries.
Beverly Young, wife of the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told her husband about the surcharge after hearing of it on one of her regular visits to minister to wounded troops. Troops get a food allowance in their pay to cover meals, but must pay it back when hospitalized since they don't pay for food there.
Young's bill would eliminate the surcharge for a year and is now before the Senate, but the Florida Republican wants to pursue a permanent ban.
Bush, who went to the military hospitals several times this year to visit troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, last visited Walter Reed on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He and his wife, Laura, met privately with about 30 soldiers before he pinned Purple Hearts to the hospital gowns of 11 of them.
Joyner, who arrived at the hospital just after Bush's visit, saw Carter, a family friend, and shook hands and posed for photographs with the secretary of the Navy and the Marine Corps commandant.
"That was a good morale booster," said Joyner. "I've never seen them in person."
After Murtha tried to cheer up the partially blind Marine, who also was in danger of losing a foot, the lawmaker told reporters that "somebody has to go" at the Pentagon.
"We can't allow the bureaucrats to get off," Murtha said, "while these young people are paying such a heavy, heavy price."
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On the Net:
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, center, talks with U.S. Army soldiers during his visit to the Camp Casey, the headquarters of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division, at Dongducheon, north of Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003. Rumsfeld is here to hold an annual meeting on the two countries' military alliance and South Korea's planned dispatch of troops to help U.S. forces rebuild and stabilize the war-torn Iraq. (AP Photo/ Korea Pool)
An Iraqi refugee is hugged by a relative upon arriving 18 November 2003 from Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia at the Al-Maaqal port in the eastern side of the southern city of Basra. A group of 362 Iraqi refugees arrived home after 12 years in exile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.(AFP/Hani Al-Obeidi)
In this image from the US Air Force made available Tuesday Nov. 18, 2003, an A-10 from the 74th Fighter Squadron fires a rocket at a strategic target in Kirkuk, Iraq Monday Nov. 17, 2003 during an air strike as part of Operation Ivy Cyclone, a combined-arms operation designed to root out and crush insurgents in Iraq. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force Photo/Staff Sgt. Jeffrey A. Wolfe)
In this image from the US Air Force made available Tuesday Nov. 18, 2003, a strategic target in Kirkuk, Iraq is obliterated during an air strike as part of Operation Ivy Cyclone, a combined-arms operation designed to root out and crush insurgents in Iraq Monday Nov. 17, 2003. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jeffrey A. Wolfe)
In this image from the US Air Force made available Tuesday Nov. 18, 2003 an A-10 from the 74th Fighter Squadron drops a flare over Kirkuk, Iraq Monday Nov. 17, 2003, during an air strike as part of Operation Ivy Cyclone, a combined-arms operation designed to root out and crush insurgents in Iraq (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jeffrey A. Wolfe)