Iraq: The only question for a Democrat to support a GOP congressman

I recently attended a debate between the six Republican candidates for Congressional District 5 in Ahwatukee Foothills at the Grace Inn. The candidates are Mark Anderson, Susan Bitter-Smith, Lee Gentry, Laura Knaperak, Jim Ogsbury and David Schweikert.

The winner of the Sept. 2 Republican primary election will face incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell in the general election.

For full disclosure, I am a registered Democrat. However, my principals come before party loyalty. In my opinion, Mitchell's voting record has been disappointing on some very important issues, especially regarding war.

That is why I attended the debate, with the goal of finding out if any of the Republican candidates may have a more rational view of Iraq and what to do about it. My two criteria are: first they have to admit that knowing what we know now, that we should not have invaded in the first place; second, they should be willing to use their Constitutional power of the purse to bring our troops home. While Mitchell may meet the first here, he has certainly failed on the second by voting over and over again to fund this endless war.

With the exception of Anderson, none of the Republican candidates even mentioned Iraq on their Web sites. So I had no choice but to attend the debate and find out for myself.

The debate consisted of six questions in which each candidate had two minutes to respond. The less interesting questions were about immigration, taxes and the economy. Not that these are not important issues, but I believe that this five-plus-year occupation, which is a matter of life and death for our troops and for Iraqi civilians, is more pressing.

Not to mention that it is a significant source of the economic problems considering the hundreds of billions of dollars it has cost taxpayers thus far.

Thanks to me, there was one question regarding Iraq: "Knowing what we know now, should we have ordered our military men and women to invade Iraq in 2003?" The candidates did not like this. After the third one responded with a non-specific Iraq answer, I had to speak up to say that the candidates have avoided the question.

In the end, Bitter-Smith was the only clear "Yes" saying that we should still have invaded even though the reasons turned out to be untrue. And Gentry was the clear "No." Schweikert and Ogsbury complained about the question and gave no clear answer just as Anderson and Knaperak's answers were also ambiguous.

Given these responses, or lack thereof, it seems Gentry is the only Republican candidate that I could possibly consider. I did not ask him my second question. So for now, I'll wait to see if he can win the Republican primary, then I will inquire more afterwards.

By the way, if you like seeing politicians squirm, just give one of the other four candidates a call to ask them these same Iraq questions.

Better yet, attend one of the debates and ask them in person.

Nicholas Collins volunteered on Harry Mitchell's campaign in 2006. He is a resident of Ahwatukee Foothills and is an engineering consultant.