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June 29, 2006

Sen. Reed to visit Iraq for 8th time

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jack Reed will make his eighth wartime visit to Iraq next week, traveling with fellow Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware. They will focus on the prospects for reductions in U.S. force levels.

Reed said in an interview this afternoon that he will seek a first hand "sense of the judgement and insights" of military leaders in Baghdad, as well as those of front line troops in the outlying hotspots.

A key question that Reed and Biden will explore is the ability of Iraqi security forces to start taking the lead in fighting battles. Reed said they will try to examine the less dramatic but equally important issue of how far the new Iraqi government has progressed on the political battlefront.

In that regard, Reed said he hopes to meet with top Iraq officials to urge them to make changes in their new constitution that would provide for a fairer distribution of the nation's resources -- especially oil -- among its contesting ethnic and religious groups.

-- Journal staff writer John E. Mulligan

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 4:40 PM | Permalink

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