Snyder visits with Rotary Club

Rep. Vic Snyder stayed home from Democrats' gathering in Denver this week to be with his wife, the Rev. Betsy Singleton, who is expecting three babies in about 15 weeks.

"Contrary to some newspaper reports, Betsy's doing fine," Snyder told the Conway Rotary Club on Thursday.

"When we thought I was going to be gone, we planned for someone to stay with her at night, but when you have someone in the house to help, you end up taking care of that person, too. It became apparent to me that I was needed at home."

Snyder reflected on his work in D.C., especially as chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

When the committee focused on the war in Iraq, "We had think tankers, former generals ... a really interesting variety" that testified before the bipartisan committee.

Hearings lasted several months with some concentration on Provencial Reconstruction Teams assigned to work during the shooting war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He explained: "PRTs go into a community to help build the communities up. The teams would find that one might need a school they'd build a school. Some needed a power plant they'd build a power plant," Snyder said.

After hearing the lack of success in some locations, the PRTs methods were changed. The PRTs were encouraged to get the members of the community together to decide what was needed and enlist their help in the rebuilding.

The hearings provided a "keyhole" to a much broader need for inter-agency reform. To get the military, the USAID, the state department, the agriculture department, federal workers compensation, etc., working together to help the country get on its feet.

A veterinarian who spent a year in Iraq testified that the differences between the U.S. agencies were greater than the differences with the Iraqis.

"That was amazing to us," Snyder said,

He had high praise for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "We realized almost overnight that here is a remarkable guy who is a straight-shooter. We can trust them again. There was a lot of unhappiness with the former secretary (Donald Rumsfeld)."

Snyder agrees with Gates' call for more funding for the state department and USAID.

"We have to avoid militarizing our efforts overseas. That's only one arrow in the quiver. We need to build our moral force, increase our diplomatic corps," Snyder said.

He called for more foreign language training in public schools. "How many of you went to an elementary school that taught Farsi? Did you go to a college that taught Korean? It's too much to ask our military to solve this problem for us, teaching foreign languages on top of teaching our soldiers to shoot,"

Not too long ago, if anyone talked about health care they were ridiculed, Snyder said.

"But now, everybody is talking about a health care plan. The health care issue is holding us back, keeping us from competing overseas. It's hurting small businesses; we don't know how to pay for Medicare, Medicaid.

"There are 80 million Americans without health insurance. A broken ankle can lead to personal bankruptcy," Snyder said.

"Eighteen months from the first of the year, I hope we'll be on the way to solving this issue."

Snyder was invited to speak by Gabe Gentry, producer of the "In Their Words" TV documentary focusing on recollections of World War II veterans.