WASHINGTON – Elk County, Pa., resident and Pennsylvania Army
National Guard Captain Kurt Barclay heard firsthand on Wednesday
the Iraqi prime minister’s vision for building a democratic and
peaceful Iraq, as he joined lawmakers, dignitaries and other
special guests at the request of U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., in
attending a joint session of Congress convened to receive Iraq’s
top domestic minister and foreign diplomat, Nouri al-Maliki.

A Geographic Information Systems coordinator for the North
Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission
in Ridgway, Pa., Barclay’s tenure of service with the National
Guard took him to hot spots throughout Iraq, including tours of
duty in Najaf, Fallujah, and Baghdad.

Barclay commanded Battery C, 1st of the 107th Field Artillery
based in Oil City, Venango County, Pa. He and his men spent a year
in Iraq engaged in a variety of sensitive missions, including
providing security details for state officials, perimeter
patrolling, direct engagements and training Iraqi security
forces.

“Captain Barclay has defended this country for the better part
of two decades,” said Peterson. “I thought that he, perhaps more
than most, would appreciate the opportunity to be in the House
chamber during the Iraqi prime minister’s address to Congress, so
that he can hear firsthand how his service has created the
possibility of a new and exciting future for an entire region of
the world.”

During his address earlier this week, which lasted roughly
30-minutes, al-Maliki thanked the American people on several
occasions for their sacrifice and steadfast resolve in the ongoing
struggle for security in Iraq. He also provided Congress a sense of
how far the nation has come just over the past year, citing the
establishment of a permanent democratic government, a free and
uncensored media, women’s rights, and the advent of a free market
economy as evidence of the country’s progress toward peace and a
self-sustaining democracy.

“Iraq will not forget those who stood beside it in its past
tribulations, nor will it forget those who will stand beside it in
the future,” he said.

Barclay, for his part, was encouraged not only by the content
and composition of the speech, but by the fact that a
democratically-elected representative of a nation he helped
liberate stood before him to deliver it.

“While in Iraq, we were in the historic position of being there
to plant the first seeds of democracy and witness them take root,”
said Barclay. “But today, sitting in the chamber of the U.S. House
of Representatives during a joint session of Congress, I was able
to see in very real terms what our hard work and sacrifice was able
to produce.

“It was an extraordinary experience.”