Newburyport News: Moulton Returns from the Middle East

SALEM — Fresh off a historic trip to Havana, Cuba, as part of a bipartisan delegation that accompanied President Barack Obama last month, Salem Congressman Seth Moulton found himself on the road again — this time for a weeklong trip to the Middle East.

Last week, Moulton and five other House Armed Services Committee Democrats went on a five-country trip focused on Middle East security.

Among the stops, Moulton went to the front lines in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. He also met and shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The trip, from March 28 to April 3, included stops in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq and Spain. Massachusetts Congressman Steve Lynch was also part of the delegation.

For Moulton, one of the trip’s highlights was meeting an Andover native in command of a Naval patrol boat. Andover is part of Moulton’s Sixth District.

This isn’t the congressman’s first trip to the Middle East. He served four tours of duty during the Iraq War as a Marine Corps infantry officer. Moulton said he learned from his time in the Marines that you have to know what is going on on the ground to know what is going on.

“You can’t make policy from a bubble in Washington, you have to see how things are going on the ground,” he said.

While he met with many U.S. and foreign military leaders, he said he found it most instructive in speaking with service personnel.

“We also met with the lance corporals and lieutenants who are executing policy on the ground,” Moulton said. “Those are some of the most important meetings that we had.”

In Israel and Iraq\

The freshman congressman said he and the delegation met with Netanyahu for more than an hour, during which the prime minister focused on security concerns amid a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Netanyahu did not talk much about the Iran nuclear deal, which was meant to curtail Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. While Moulton favored the deal, the prime minister vehemently opposed it last year.

According to Moulton, leaders in the Gulf States are relieved that Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon. And while Netanyahu opposed the deal in an attempt to win more military support, Moulton said other leaders in Israel were supportive of it.

While he felt safe walking around the Old City of Jerusalem, Moulton said he could sense tension. The more person-to-person violence that goes on, he said, “the further away a peace deal gets.”

The delegation also visited several military sites, and spoke with U.S. and Iraqi military commanders, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones, and service members stationed in Baghdad and Anbar.

“We were at one of the most forward bases in the fight against ISIS,” Moulton said. While impressed with the U.S. military plan to defeat the terror group, he said he found the lack of a longterm political solution disturbing.

“It unfortunately reaffirmed what I have been saying all along,” said Moulton, who said many Sunni leaders he spoke with felt marginalized by the actions of the Baghdad government.

“We have to defeat ISIS militarily, the attacks in Brussels prove that,” said Moulton, referring to the March 22 terror attacks in Belgium’s capital. The problem is, once ISIS is defeated, there needs to be a plan in place to avoid another terror group from filling the gap, he said.

Since he served in Iraq, Moulton said it is difficult for him to return to the country.

“It’s actually very emotional for me. I spent three years of my life in Iraq. I have Iraqi friends,” he said. He had hoped that by now he would have been able to bring family and friends to show them the amazing sights of Iraq. But Americans are still fighting there.

In Bahrain, Moulton and the delegation paid a visit to one of the largest ships in the Navy, the carrier USS Harry S. Truman, and had lunch with Naval personnel from Massachusetts. The congressman posted a picture of the sailors on Twitter.

He also met with Andover native Lt. Commander Hunter Washburn of the USS Monsoon, a 180-foot patrol boat “that goes out and meets Iranian patrol boats every single day. He and his crew are doing fantastic work. I was proud to see a Sixth District native commanding a ship to counter the Iranian threat in the Middle East.”

Article here.