Duckworth returns from Iraq, says ISIS still exists, but is more insidious now
After retuning from a five-day trip from Iraq, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth says the Islamic State is still in existence and more insidious now, even though it no longer holds territory.
She said the 30,000 ISIS refugees of displaced women and children are still loyal to ISIS, and if nothing is done, the collapsed caliphate can reemerge. She said that group includes 10,000 children under the age of 5.
Plans to put them in camps would only warehouse them without helping them reform would only lead to a future rise of ISIS, Duckworth said.
“The Iraqi government is failing to deal with these most hardcore of ISIS supporters,” Duckworth said. “I’m very concerned. Yes we’ve defeated them in in the sense they don’t hold ground, but they have not lost their capabilities to reemerge when there is an opening for them to do so.”
President Donald Trump, a Republican, recently declared on Twitter that ISIS has been defeated in Iraq. He also said he wants to pull U.S. military forces out of Syria, but has since reversed his stance.
Despite Trump’s declaration, Duckworth, who visited Iraq last week with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, and U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, says there needs to be continued engagement with the Middle Eastern country militarily, economically and diplomatically.
“I see conditions for a return, I don’t want to have to send more troops there,” Duckworth said. “I don’t want any more U.S. presence there. I want less and less as time goes by, and we cant have that unless we engage and force the Iraqis to step up and deal with this problem.”
The U.S. provides an advisory role and helps develop intelligence for the Iraqi military.
According to Duckworth, military personnel don’t want the U.S. need to give Iraq money to buy equipment, such as fighter jets, because there are no pilots to fly them.
“The goal of our military forces was to teach the Iraqis and get them to maintain and sustain themselves without an overall US presence.”
Duckworth returned to Iraq for the first time in 15 years when the Blackhawk helicopter she was flying was shot down by a rocket propelled grenade. Duckworth lost both of legs in the crash. She now uses a wheelchair to get around, but does have prosthetic legs to allow her to stand from time to time.
During this trip, however, Duckworth said she was proud to able to leave the country on her own terms, instead of on a stretcher.
She was emotional during her first helicopter ride in the country during the trip, which was with Isakson and King.
She felt like she was in the wrong seat; she wanted to be in the front seat flying in the helicopter.
“It just hit me, all the identity I had lost as a soldier,” Duckworth said. “But as the trip went on, and I listened to my colleagues, some who had mad more trips to Iraq than me … I came to realize the mission we had, to work together, Johnny and Angus and myself and the commitment we made to this country.”
She said ultimately wants to see Iraq succeed as an economically independent and viable nation, but it’s not there yet.
“My hope is Iraq emerges as an independent democracy that is a leader in the region that is not beholden to any country,” Duckworth said. “I would rather have a strong Iraq be an ally to the U.S. than an Iraq that is beholden to Iran, Russia or other nations.”
