Indiana Senator Richard Lugar called for a change of course in Iraq in a speech on the Senate floor Monday. The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says U.S. planners have lost contact with America’s vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond. Lugar says constructing a new policy outside the binary choice of surge or withdrawal will require members of Congress to be receptive to the President’s overtures to construct a new policy. Lugar says unless the U.S. recalibrates its strategy in Iraq, America risks foreign policy failures that could greatly diminish our influence in the region and the world.
However, Lugar says he believes America still has viable options that could strengthen its position in the Middle East. He says with a new strategy, the U.S. will have the ability to reduce the prospect of terrorism, regional war, and other calamities.
