Romney makes unannounced visit to Iraq

BOSTON --Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday he was impressed by the determination of U.S. forces and local residents in Iraq, following an unannounced goodwill and fact-finding trip that could also burnish his foreign policy credentials should he run for president in 2008.

The Republican governor met Tuesday and Wednesday with Gen. George Casey, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, as well as Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. But Romney said he still could not make a judgment about when Iraqi forces could assume security operations from American troops.

"You come back feeling extraordinary appreciation for the troops," Romney told The Associated Press in a telephone interview after returning to Kuwait City, Kuwait, from Baghdad. "They have a very tough job and they're making extraordinary sacrifices and they're serving us with extraordinary honor and patriotism."

He added: "It's also fair to say that I respect the Iraqi people, who are in a dangerous environment but who are courageous and steadfast and hopeful in a very difficult place to live right now."

Romney was scheduled to stop in Pakistan on Thursday en route to Afghanistan, where he was to meet with President Hamid Karzai. After an overnight stay at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Romney will fly to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday. The governor is scheduled to return to Massachusetts on Saturday.

The opening stage of the trip, which began Monday with a military flight to Kuwait from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, was made under a reporting embargo requested by the Department of Defense. Pentagon officials said advance publicity about visits by high-profile U.S. delegations can inspire violence by Iraqi insurgent groups.

Accompanying Romney on the trip were two other governors, Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat from Montana, and Matt Blunt, a Republican from Missouri. Schweitzer said the governors watched a demonstration by Iraqi special forces and got the chance to try out their weapons.

"You wouldn't think the governors of Missouri and Massachusetts would know how to shoot but they seem to be all right," Schweitzer said.

About half the nation's governors have made similar trips to Iraq.

Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst in Washington, sees the trip benefiting Romney should he run for president. The governor is not seeking re-election this fall and has acknowledged assessing a 2008 White House campaign. He has no military service.

"This kind of trip is an effort to credential him, to some extent, to bring him up to speed on the issues, to let him say he was there on the ground, seeing things first hand, to give him experience that he can talk about on the stump," Rothenberg said. "These days, I don't think you can run for president without a background in -- or an ability to fake a background in -- national security issues."

The governor downplayed any political element to his trip.

"No," Romney said. "This is about seeing our men and women from Massachusetts. There are 28 other governors who are either making this trip or have made it in the past. My guess is all the governors will have this opportunity, and for me this was a chance to say thank you and show my respect and encouragement for the men and women who are serving us."

Romney has expressed kaleidoscopic views on Iraq, steadfastly pledging his support for President Bush and the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, while simultaneously criticizing Bush for not doing an "adequate job" outlining the rationale for the war, saying the attack was based on faulty intelligence and arguing the U.S. had provided insufficient troops to stabilize the country following initial combat.

Romney said Wednesday that Casey told him and the other governors that members of the Iraqi military are waiting to see the strength of a new prime minister and unity government that took office over the weekend. If they have confidence in that leadership, Casey said, it could accelerate the transfer of security operations from U.S. to Iraqi forces.

"I'm certainly not in a position to make an independent judgment today about the timing of the assumption of security duties by the military of Iraq, but those soldiers I saw and met with from Iraq struck me as being courageous and patriotic," Romney said.

About 550 members of the Massachusetts National Guard are spread between Iraq and Afghanistan. Romney has attended many of their departures and returns, as well as the funerals for all of the Massachusetts service members who have been killed in battles following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Romney's visit to the cradle of the Bush administration's war on terror comes less than a month after he and another potential Republican presidential contender, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, made a similarly secretive visit to a military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terror suspects are being held. Huckabee made his own Defense Department visit to Iraq in January.

Romney has been spending up to half the business days each month this year traveling either for his own political purposes or on behalf of the Republican Governors Association, a group dedicated to electing Republican governors. Romney serves as chairman.

The governor received briefings at the Pentagon on Monday before departing for Andrews Air Force Base. His communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, would not say whether Romney also held personal political meetings during his brief stay in Washington.

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Gov. Mitt Romney: http://www.mass.gov