Issue Position: Iraq

Issue Position

During his five visits to Iraq, Congressman Lynch has met with U.S. commanders, Massachusetts service members, the Iraqi Council of Representatives, and President Talabani. As a result, Congressman Lynch believes that the transition in Iraq from American military to Iraqi civilian control will ultimately be a political rather than a military one. Congressman Lynch believes that a necessary precondition to an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops is a transfer of power in Iraq to the Iraqi government.

That is why Congressman Lynch authored legislation that establishes a plan to systematically shift control to the Iraqi Government. The Iraq Transition Act would establish a bipartisan national commission here in the United States that would facilitate an orderly, deliberate, and expeditious transfer of government operations in Iraq from U.S. military control to the democratically-elected Iraqi government.

Congressman Lynch has also been an outspoken advocate for congressional oversight of the $30 billion dollars of American taxpayers' money that the Bush Administration has spent on the reconstruction of Iraq. Congressman Lynch believes that the unprecedented extent of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Iraqi contracting process has amounted to a lost opportunity to help the Iraqi people and has frustrated our overall policy in Iraq.

Notably, in March of 2005, a former Halliburton purchasing employee and a managing partner of a Kuwaiti firm were indicted for a kickback scheme through which U.S. taxpayers were billed more than $5.5 million for work that should have cost only $680,000. As a result, during several hearings held by the House Committee on Government Reform on Iraq Reconstruction, Congressman Lynch repeatedly asked Department of Defense officials whether all contracts in Iraq involving these two individuals were under review. After receiving unsatisfactory responses from the Department, Congressman Lynch then introduced the Iraq Contracting Fraud Review Act, legislation requiring DOD to review all reconstruction contracts involving former contractor employees or federal officials that have been indicted or convicted for contracting abuses.

Congressman Lynch has also actively worked to advance technology that would jam improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq. IEDs have been used extensively in Iraq to target American forces and have accounted for about one-third of all American deaths in Iraq. For this reason, Congressman Lynch has supported more funding for new technology and has worked with the Joint IED Defeat Task Force as well as other technology and policy experts to try to disable these deadly devices. Additionally, Congressman Lynch has worked to ensure that our courageous troops in Iraq have the body armor and vehicle protection that they need.

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