Mr. Bush, listen to Sen. Lugar

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 28, 2007

When the Bush administration has lost Sen. Richard Lugar's support for its war strategy, it is time to change direction. The Indiana Republican's sober assessment that the military surge in Iraq is not likely to succeed and that talks should begin about reducing the number of troops underscores that even President Bush's mainstream supporters are prepared to acknowledge the realities of the chaos in the Middle East and the political mood in this country.

The messenger here is as significant as the message. Lugar has served in the Senate for more than three decades and is the well-respected former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He avoids partisanship and grandstanding, delivering his speech with little fanfare late Monday in a nearly empty chamber. He is not the first Republican senator to call for a change in strategy in Iraq, but he is the most influential.

In his speech, Lugar calmly acknowledged what most Americans already have concluded but the president refuses to see. The senator said it is "almost impossible" for the United States to stop the fighting in Iraq and enable a representative government there to take root any time soon. He detailed the historical sectarian conflicts that make it difficult for Iraqis to establish a national identity, the severe toll the war has taken on the overburdened U.S. military and the looming 2008 presidential election. Lugar correctly concludes that those factors are quickly closing any opening for a bipartisan plan to start withdrawing troops and make a major correction in foreign policy toward Iraq in particular and the Middle East in general.

It would be a mistake to lump Lugar with more fervent partisans or antiwar activists who demand an immediate military withdrawal regardless of the consequences. Neither is he so frustrated that he is prepared for the United States to turn its back on the Middle East and create an opening for Iran or other opportunists to take advantage of the chaos we helped create.

Instead, Lugar echoed many of the themes the Iraq Study Group pressed without success months ago. He suggests keeping a reduced military force in the region while using diplomacy to prevent a postwar Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists, violence from spreading throughout the region, and Iran from exerting greater influence and threatening Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Israel. The key, as Lugar points out, is for the United States to look beyond Iraq toward a more regional approach aimed at stabilizing the area and protecting American interests.

This is a frank, clear-headed assessment from a Hoosier whose intellect and integrity are unquestioned. The war in Iraq has lost the support of the American people, and now it is losing support from influential Senate Republicans who have given the White House more than enough time to acknowledge its flawed strategy isn't working and make corrections. By failing to listen, the president is missing an opportunity and delaying the inevitable.

[Last modified June 27, 2007, 21:46:46]