Republican dam breaking on Iraq?

Voinovich, Lugar call on Bush to plan Iraq withdrawal
By Noam N. Levey
LA Times

WASHINGTON — In an ominous sign of wavering GOP support for the White House's Iraq strategy, two more Republican senators have called on President Bush to begin planning the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Ohio Sen. George Voinovich sent a letter to the president today, stressing the need for a "comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement from Iraq."

And Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the widely respected former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Monday evening went to the floor of the Senate to call on the president "to downsize the U.S. military's role in Iraq."

"Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond," Lugar said in an anguished address that expressed deep reservations about the president's policy as well as disappointment with the highly partisan debate over the war in Washington.

"The prospects that the current 'surge' strategy will succeed in the way originally envisioned by the president are very limited within the short period framed by our own domestic political debate," Lugar said. "And the strident, polarized nature of that debate increases the risk that our involvement in Iraq will end in a poorly planned withdrawal."

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Lugar Urges Quick Shift in Iraq War Strategy
By JEFF ZELENY
New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 25 — After offering a bleak assessment of the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said today that he was urging lawmakers and President Bush to change course quickly to protect a further erosion of America’s standing in the world.

“We’re heading into a very partisan era,” Mr. Lugar said in an interview today, following a speech he delivered on the Senate floor on Monday night in which he called on the administration to rethink its Iraq strategy. “The president has the opportunity now to bring about a bipartisan foreign policy. I don’t think he’ll have that option very long.”

For months, Mr. Lugar has kept his skepticism about the president’s Iraq policy to himself, seldom offering anything beyond a wait-and-see reply. But three weeks ago, Mr. Lugar said, he privately concluded that the troop buildup plan was not achieving its goals and he began preparing remarks he delivered Monday evening.

“In my judgment, the costs and risks of continuing down the current path outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved,” Mr. Lugar said on the Senate floor. “Persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term.”

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