For the U.S. to effectively wage war on terror, military personnel must be repositioned to fight where terrorist activity is most rampant, said Congressman Rick Larsen Sunday at an informal town talk in Oak Harbor.

The Second District Democrat confirmed that he voted against the president’s plan to send additional troops to Iraq.

Ty Welch of Oak Harbor challenged the politician, maintaining that military assets must continue to be allocated until the Iraqi government is self-sustaining.

“They can and must win in Iraq,” he said, after he and Larsen agreed that the U.S. military’s quality and strength are unparalleled.

The subjective victory would be tantamount to occupying Iraq until a workable democracy is a reality, the retired chief petty officer continued.

“Occupy there long enough, as we did in Japan and Germany, to institute a democratic government, so that they can eventually take over their own security,” he told Larsen. “It’s too soon to cut and run from Iraq. We need to stay the course and we need to finish the job.”

Welch’s remarks, or the timbre of his voice, were met with a drone of dissenting murmurs and disapproving moans from some of the nearly 100 people assembled at the Oak Harbor School District administration building. Scattered supportive voices in the back of the room, however, managed to slightly offset the cacophony. Welch, who spent 21 years in the Navy, was undeterred and continued to passionately argue that pulling out of Iraq at this point would dishonor the servicemen and women who have served and, in some cases, died for their country. Removing the troops would also confirm Osama Bin Laden’s assertion that the U.S. is essentially a “paper tiger,” he added.

Larsen replied that the military’s job is not to prove the decision makers are correct. Instead, it is the job of the decision makers to set forth achievable objectives for the military.

“I think we disagree that we can have a democracy in Iraq,” the congressman told Welch. “I think that we need to spend our time fighting terrorists. Right now most of our troops in Iraq are keeping a lid on civil war. If we had 132,000 troops available to fight terrorists, I’d rather stick most of those guys in Afghanistan, because Afghanistan was the country that harbored Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.”

Larsen clarified his position on the Iraq war, recommending a wake-up call for a country that could ultimately take the United States’ assistance for granted.

“The point I’m making with my position is that I used to say we should wait until we had all the Iraqi military trained and ready to go,” he said. “But I have lost confidence in the Iraqi military and more importantly I have lost confidence in the Iraqi government to actually do the things they need to do. It needs, in my opinion, a cold water splash in the face in order for them to understand how serious we are about not having an open-ended commitment in Iraq.”

The fresh troops President Bush is sending to Iraq to augment the military presence could instead be positioned to straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan, the more dangerous terrorist hot spot, Larsen said.

“For those who say Iraq is the central front in the war on terror, I would disagree with them,” he said. “The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the central front in the war on terror. And we need a lot more people there than we need in Iraq.”

The president’s move to increase the number of troops has met with opposition from both parties. The debate in Washington, D.C. will continue to unfold and possibly come to a head when the supplemental appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq military operations come before the House. He emphasized that only strategy is being debated, not the support of servicemen — a lesson learned from Vietnam.

“There is going to be debate on appropriate strategy in Iraq,” he said.

Rumblings of an Iran conflict have seeped into the national media, stemming from a breakdown in nuclear negotiations last summer. Larsen said the U.S. developed a layered approach to apply pressure while continuing to employ diplomacy. The current military presence in the Persian Gulf is a tangible manifestation of that pressure.

“The question is, is this being done as a way to keep pressure on Iran to negotiate on a nuclear weapons program or is this a prelude to something else?” Larsen asked the audience, responding to a citizen’s inquiry about the likelihood and plausibility of the U.S. initiating a war against Iran. “I do know that I wouldn’t support going to war with Iran based on the current situation.”

With nonproliferation of nuclear arms a major goal, the congressman said the possibility of Iran having such weapons raises a definite problem. As a solution to the Iraq war, he recommended communicating with all players in the region, including Iran and Syria. If they refuse to participate, their respective stances will be more apparent.

“It is worth engaging Iran and Syria in order to out them on that issue,” he said.

Prior to fielding questions, Larsen summarized the productive first 100 hours of the Democratic 110th Congress, with House resolutions (HRs) ranging from ethics reform, to implementation of the 9/11 Commission, to raising the minimum wage, to stem cell research promotion.

HR 4 was particularly important to the 99,000 senior citizens in Larsen’s congressional district, as it requires Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, which current law prohibits.

“We’re talking about a lot of folks in our neighborhoods who could benefit from the government having the ability to negotiate lower prices,” he said.

A resolution close to Larsen’s heart, HR 5, will cut the interest rate in half on subsidized student loans — from 6.8 to 3.4 percent — effectively making college more affordable and accessible. Washington has nearly 50,000 subsidized loan borrowers at four-year institutions. The average state student would save $2,410 on their loan as a result of the resolution. When cuts are fully implemented in 2011, the average college student will save $4,570 over the life of the loan.

If tidal power becomes a legitimate option in Washington, the federal government could be interested in helping finance development of the alternative source of energy. A new resolution will allow America to reduce its dependence on foreign oil and close loopholes in the tax code for the oil industry.

“As a step, as one piece, we’re trying to diversify the portfolio of energy that we use in this country and to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy,” Larsen said.

The stringent and controversial No Child Left Behind federal legislation will be up for reauthorization this year. Gary Wallin, Oak Harbor School Board president, bemoaned the fiscally wrist-tying, non-funded mandates set forth by NCLB. The light at the end of the tunnel could come in the form of Democrats vehemently pushing for modifications to the legislation’s punitive structure. Clumping students into one group is not effective, Larsen said. Each child brings unique problems and circumstances to the classroom. Placing them under one umbrella is counter productive.

“The current model doesn’t account for that,” he said. “And so you have schools that maybe are advancing relative to themselves, but not advancing relative to the standards.”

A Democratic force should help exert pressure in Congress and make the regulations more manageable and realistic, in Larsen’s view.

The president’s 2008 budget will be released next week. The document will undoubtedly raise many issues for Americans, and possibly their ire. Larsen encouraged citizens to e-mail their input or concerns to him at rick.larsen@mail.house.gov.