Army dad Daley silent on buildup

Son could go to Iraq, so mayor is waiting to hear Bush's plan

As the father of a soldier in the Army, Mayor Daley has a personal stake in any buildup of troops in Iraq. Patrick Daley could be among the 20,000 additional soldiers ordered into Iraq by President Bush.

On Wednesday, the mayor said he would await an official announcement by Bush before deciding whether he supports the president's plan to use additional troops to try to change course in Iraq.

Daley dodged repeated questions about the Bush buildup plan, then changed the subject -- to the Iraq Study Group dominated by Washington insiders.

"You don't stay in Washington to solve the issue. You have to go out and talk to people in America. Listen to family members and people who lost loved ones. Listen to the men and women in the armed forces [and ask], 'Are they better prepared? Do they have the best equipment and technology? Do they have the best facilities there?'" Daley said.

"The commission was everybody in Washington. They put the same people together to deal with the Iraq situation instead of going outside [the Beltway] and thinking outside the box."

The mayor wondered why the nation is still struggling to find a solution in Iraq.

"Why is it we have all the brains there -- whether Democrats or Republicans sitting there in offices -- and they can't come up with a solution? That's what you really wonder about. All of those generals, all of those CIA agents, all the people we're paying big salaries. If you come out here and talk to people [in the heartland], they'll give you some common sense about an issue like that," he said.

Patrick Daley enlisted in the Army in 2004 at the age of 29 after graduating with honors from the University of Chicago's MBA program. He is stationed with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C.

In December 2005, the mayor staked out a middle ground on an issue he acknowledged was "dividing America."

Like every soldier's parent, he said he would love to bring the troops home and longed for the day when Iraq "becomes independent" and its citizens are "able to fight for their own survival." But Daley also said at the time that he understood Iraq's strategic importance.

"We just can't leave the Middle East. Let's forget about the Middle East. Just walk away. I don't think anybody wants that," he said.

Daley also drew a comparison between the fight for democracy in Iraq and three earlier conflicts that centered around a quest for freedom: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II.

"No one likes war because it's the death of someone's son or daughter, father, mother or son. ... No one was for the Revolutionary War. ... Maybe today they would doubt the Civil War -- whether or not slavery was worth fighting for. I think it was," he said then.

fspielman@suntimes.com