West Tennessee Representative John Tanner says victory in Iraq must be redefined if the US wants help from its NATO allies.
Last week, Tanner was appointed chairman of nation’s delegation to NATO. He has served in the NATO Parliament since 1998. Tanner was the organization’s Vice President in 2005, and currently heads its Economics and Security Committee.
With 30-thousand troops on the ground, Tanner says NATO plays vital role in Afghanistan. And despite several years of disagreement over America’s approach to the war in Iraq, Tanner says there’s hope that NATO might help there, too.
“I think there is a consensus emerging that a bad outcome in Iraq is not just an ‘I told you so’ situation, that a bad outcome in Iraq is not good for anybody. And so I think we have the openings to try to form a consensus if we can get victory redefined.”
Tanner says the European delegations would be willing to help the US if the goal was an Iraq that is friendly with the West. But he says they feel insisting Iraq adopt a Western-style democratic government is going too far.
NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly will meet next month in Brussels, Belgium.