Lingle recounts visit with troops in Iraq

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle will fly back to the U.S. Mainland today after a trip to the Middle East that included a two-day visit in war-ravaged Iraq.

During the trip this week, made under the cloak of secrecy with five other governors at the expense of the Department of Defense, Lingle met with U.S. soldiers, including an unspecified number from Hawai'i.

She also took part in discussions with the Iraqi Governing Council, was briefed by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, special envoy to Iraq, and toured military installations and other points around Baghdad.

"It was a great experience, especially my opportunity to meet with troops from Hawai'i," Lingle said by telephone from Amman, Jordan, where the governors rested last night before their flight to Washington, D.C., today.

Lingle had dinner with soldiers from the Hawai'i-based 25th Infantry Division on Monday night and lunched with about a half-dozen military personnel with Hawai'i ties attached to the 1st Armored Division yesterday.

The governor said Spc. Ligaya Vasquez, a McKinley High School graduate, exemplified the views of many of the young soldiers she met.

"She works in intelligence, and she just loves her job," Lingle said. "She loves it here, and what she's doing. She likes going out and meeting with the Iraqi people."

Lingle said that after talking to members of the governing council, "my impression is we're going to be here a long time."

The governor said council members believe that providing for basic needs is the key to winning the Iraqis' support for the U.S.-led efforts toward establishing a new government.

"They made the point that we have to focus on feeding people and creating employment," she said.

One council member referred to the majority of Iraqis as "people with empty stomachs." Lingle said the council member told her that "when a person is hungry, you can't talk to him about principles."

She noted that the U.S. forces are entering a period when more than one-third of personnel will consist of reservists and National Guard troops, including many from Hawai'i.

Those troops, who have "private-sector skills" outside the military, will bring skills needed to rebuild the country, she said.

Lingle said members of the governing council she spoke to want control of Baghdad turned over to them by the summer, but they want Americans to maintain a strong presence to help with the rebuilding of their nation.

"They're not shy about saying 'We want our country back on June 30,' but they don't want us to leave," she said. "They're grateful that we liberated them, but I think they feel somewhat embarrassed that they weren't able to do it for themselves, that they allowed this to go on the way it did."

Lingle said that she and the other governors wore body armor and were accompanied by Navy SEALs armed with machine guns and two hovering Apache helicopters wherever they went.

But although the terrorist attacks have continued, and some people remain loyal to Saddam Hussein, she said, her impression is that "the people here just really like Americans."

The reason, she said, is "for a majority of people, I think, things are just much better for them now."

The governor backed actions taken by her communications staff to hide the fact that she had flown to Iraq.

Russell Pang, Lingle's chief of communications, told reporters that the governor was in the Capitol on Monday. That same day, the staff issued a press release indicating the governor would be taking part in a public event on O'ahu on Tuesday.

"I wish we could have done it another way," Lingle said. "But we were made clear from the first telephone call regarding this that if any word leaked out, the trip would be canceled. Likewise, should we have left on the trip and word got out, the safety of the governors would have been jeopardized.

"So I wish there was another way to do it, but under the circumstances, that's just the way it happened."

Lingle was to travel on a seven-hour flight to Ireland for a stopover, and then a seven-hour flight to Washington, D.C.

She was to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge for dinner tonight, and with President Bush tomorrow morning.

She is expected to stay overnight Friday in Los Angeles and fly back Saturday to Honolulu, where she is to attend a function that evening.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.