WASHINGTON – If Iraq’s leaders put half the effort U.S. soldiers have into stabilizing their government, the job would be done and the troops would be home, Congressman Michael Arcuri (D-Utica) said Friday.

Congressman Arcuri returned to Washington Thursday from a three-day visit to Iraq with a Congressional delegation led by U.S. representative Kendrick Meek (D-FL).

Arcuri says both Sunni and Shiite leaders have wasted time and lives playing politics when they should have been working together to make Iraq’s government work.

“The brave men and women who are fighting in Iraq and risking their lives are the very best that this country has to offer and incredibly good at what they do. Their courage and determination is inspiration to all of us,” he said Friday in a conference call with reporters. “If the Iraqi government would do half of what our troops have done, they would be on their way home now.”

The recent 30,000 surge in U.S. troops calmed violence and gave the Sunnis and Shiites “breathing space” to negotiate their roles in the new government, Arcuri said, but instead the Iraqi parliament took a summer recess.

“They’ve squandered that time,” he asserted, “while Iraqi and American lives continue to be lost.”