Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's two U.S. Senators are in Iraq, meeting with military and government officials on the eve of some important political developments in Baghdad. April Baer reports they called from Iraq Monday to talk about what they'd observed.

The Iraqi Parliament is trying to get agreement on rules for a January 18th election -- an election the U.S. said was a crucial benchmark to American troops pulling out as scheduled in 2011.

A dispute over representation has thrown the plan up in the air.  Senator Ron Wyden said the January deadline definitely will be hard to make. But, he added....

Ron Wyden: “There is additional wiggle room even if the election is postponed, can still pull it out on time, then it'll be possible to go forward with troop redux in summer of '10.”

But he conceded that the election will have to happen sometime in the spring for the U.S. plans to go forward.

Both Wyden, and Senator Jeff Merkley characterized the Iraqi process as critical to the United States' campaign in other parts of the region.

If there is no Iraq withdrawl, there will be no fighting force to bolster military units facing a challenging fight in Afghanistan.