Lafayette Journal & Courier

On Iraq, Lugar's voice carries

By DAN SHAW

June 27, 2007

It's too early to know whether Sen. Richard Lugar's strong comments about the Iraq war will lead to a drastic change in U.S. strategy.

But what Lugar said from the Senate floor late Monday did resonate in Lafayette and elsewhere.

John Polles, a Democrat from West Lafayette, said it's significant that so prominent a Republican has shown disagreement with the Bush administration, but he doubts the speech will have its intended effect.

"I don't see this administration swaying at all," he said.

"Lugar has to be one of the most experienced people in Congress, and it's sad because it's not going to make a difference, in my estimation."

The senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Monday night that he doubts the troop surge will succeed in bringing peace to Iraq.

Lugar also said the United States should begin withdrawing soldiers before political interests related to the 2008 presidential election make devising an alternative plan nearly impossible.

Lugar had refrained from fully supporting President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq, an attempt to end what some have called a civil war among ethnic groups. At the same time, Lugar had refused to join Democrats and a few Republicans in their attempts to block the president's pursuit of that plan.

Jay McCann, a Purdue University professor of political science, said Lugar's speech may be a sign of a wider discontent among Senate Republicans. Observers who want to weigh the effects of Lugar's words should watch other GOP leaders closely during the next few weeks.

"Richard Lugar wouldn't wake up one day and just decide to give a long speech," he said.

On Tuesday, a day after Lugar's speech, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, largely echoed his colleague's comments. And John Warner, a powerful GOP senator from Virginia, has also expressed public doubts about the Bush administration's war strategy.

"The news has been consistently bad out of Iraq," McCann said. "And commentators have wondered at what point the president would begin to lose Congress."

Neal Hawkins of Rossville said he thinks Lugar may be blinded to the true accomplishments of the U.S. military by critical accounts of the Iraq war.

"Sen. Lugar isn't on the ground in Iraq, and what he is seeing isn't actually going on," Hawkins said.

Hawkins, who describes himself as a conservative, also doubts Lugar's speech will lead to changes.

"I think President Bush has a clear enough vision that this is going to be a long-term war on terrorism," he said. "He goes on principle in the war and not on the shifting political winds."

Francis Brewer, a Democrat from Lafayette, disagreed.

"I think, one by one, as they get the leadership against the war," he said, "the lesser Republicans will follow."