Congressman Talks to Constituents
By Anne Pickering
Roane Newspapers
April 19, 2004

Thursday was Roane County day for U.S. Representative Lincoln Davis.

He talked with residents at the Oliver Springs and Harriman city halls.

In Rockwood he presented medals to veterans and gave a flag to the Tennessee Career Center.

In Kingston he had lunch with senior citizens at the Kingston Community Center, and talked about his recent trip to Iraq.

Davis took a four-day trip to the Middle East earlier this year, spending time in Kuwait City, Basra and Baghdad.

"One thing all of us can be proud of is our troops who are serving. I had an opportunity to have supper on both Saturday and Sunday nigh with them," Davis said.

One Kingston resident Henry Wattenbarger wanted to know "when are you going to stop that war?"

"I think all of us would love to stop the war," Davis said.

"We can agree with or disagree with the circumstances that put us there. But the circumstance that (is keeping) us there, we can't disagree with. We can't leave Iraq. We're committed to stay there. If we leave Iraq, the same thing will happen there as in Afghanistan. We cannot let the terrorist win," Davis said.

When asked how much longer the troops would be there, Davis said, "My lifetime. My grandkids lifetime. I think the commitment is that long."

Davis said that some people were comparing the war in Iraq to the Vietnam conflict.

"It's not like Vietnam where we just walked away. We withdrew from South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese came in but they didn't come after us. But there are a billion Muslims and there are countries over there that are not happy that we are in their homeland."

"If we can establish democracy there then the lack of support for terrorists' organizations will reduce terrorism."

Davis said that under Saddam Hussein, all the countries in the Middle East lived in fear of Iraqi aggression.

"If you are in Kuwait, who was your biggest fear?" Davis said. When we liberated Iraq, we liberated the rest of the countries.

Kingston resident Chester Cochran wanted to know if there was anything that could be done about the Tennessee Valley Authority's plan to revise the fill schedule for Watts Bar Lake.

Davis said he has been told that there is some concern about the lock at Chicamauga.

"If they can't contain enough rain upstream" and a lot of water hits the lock at Chicamauga, the lock would be under stress.