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By Associated Press
March 25, 2006
The U.S. government's first priority in Iraq should be to encourage Iraqi leaders to form a unified government that can address the problems the country faces, says Sen. Jeff Bingaman.
The Silver City Democrat traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan this week and said there is a lot of uncertainty about how the Iraqi government will be formed.
"Once a new government is in place and structured, then of course the difficult job is essentially building governmental capacity to do various things the people desperately need to have done there," Bingaman said Friday in a phone call with the Associated Press from London.
Bingaman was joined on the trip by Sens. Carl Levin, a Michagan Democrat; John Warner, a Virginia Republican; Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat; Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican; and Craig Thomas, a Republican from Wyoming.
Bingaman said electricity still is not as reliable or plentiful as it needs to be in Iraq, oil production is low and there also is a desperate need for job creation in all of the economic sectors in all parts of the country. He said those are the big challenges the United States is expected to help address.
"It will take some time, there's no question about that," he said. "The sooner we can bring in other countries to assist with that, the better for ourselves and probably for the Iraqis as well."
Bingaman made a similar trip two years ago and said now that he has seen some differences, but added that the U.S. hasn't made the progress he had hoped it would have.
An added challenge is to deal with continued violence that exists in Iraq, he said. The U.S. is working to train the Iraqi military and police, but Bingaman said it hasn't gone as quickly as expected.
"It is proceeding," he said. "Our own military leaders feel good about the progress they are making in that regard."
In regard to Afghanistan, Bingaman said the new government is well established, but there is a continuing challenge of dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaida. NATO has committed to dealing with the military, he said.
The United States would, however, have to "figure out how to get more international cooperation in helping that country achieve a sustainable economy," he said.
"The country has very little in the way of infrastructure and trained, educated people to run a viable economy," he said.
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