Countywide : Lagomarsino Visits Troops in Mideast

Touring among U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) said Wednesday that the United States may be forced into war if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein does not remove his occupying force from Kuwait.

Lagomarsino said he hopes for a peaceful solution to the Mideast crisis but suggested that the United States cannot abandon its military commitment to Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region.

“If the only other choice is to walk away, then I think we should seriously consider using military means,” Lagomarsino said in a telephone interview from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. “If it is that or say, ‘We quit,’ I don’t think we have any choice.”

Lagomarsino, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is touring the Middle East this week as part of a 20-member congressional delegation. He said the delegation’s meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and U.S. military leaders have reassured him that U.S. and foreign troops are prepared for war in the region.

The congressman also said he was impressed by the high morale among the troops he visited in the Saudi desert, particularly those closest to what could turn into the front-lines of a war.

“None of them asked me what we are doing here in the Gulf,” he said. Some troops wanted to know how long they would be in the Persian Gulf region so they could make plans at home, he said. “Some of them say we ought to get on with it, one way or another.”

Although temperatures have dropped to the high 80s, Lagomarsino said he could imagine how miserable it was in the summer. A fine dust, with the consistency of talcum powder, gets into everything.

“It isn’t a very nice place to be, and there isn’t much to do,” Lagomarsino said. “You can’t drink. You can’t hardly look at women.”