Congressman Phil English traveled to Iraq this past weekend as part of an official Congressional delegation. I caught up with the Congressman to talk about the trip…

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The flight was loud and bumpy but the Congressional delegation made it safely to Baghdad. It’s the second trip Congressman Phil English has taken to the region.

“I went to Iraq to assess for myself what was going on, on the ground and to see whether the improvements in security were for real,” said English.

English stayed overnight at Camp Victory, and said he could hear distant rocket attacks overhead. I secured all the photos of the trip from the House Armed Services and there were shots of the troops’ swimming pool, mosques, military aircraft, and many photos of the city of Baghdad taken from a plane.

The Congressman met with commander Brian Lasher, Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy world history teacher and officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, who is stationed in the “green zone.”

“I had a chance to sit down with Brian, who’s a old friend from my neighborhood, and really hear what’s going on. Looking at things through the eyes of people who are there is very important to people in Washington and Brian gave me a window on how things really have developed in Iraq,” said English.

English was a skeptic of the troop surge but now he’s optimistic. The Congressman told me that he feels very strongly that progress has been made. The trip was cut short because the members got called back to Washington for votes.

Now that English has returned from Iraq and is back here on Capitol Hill, he says he’ll continue to push for legislation to withdraw troops and reduce our footprint in Iraq.