Dear Friends: I appreciate you reading The Lugar Letter and the encouragement which you give me. I wanted to share with you the success of the second annual job fair which Rep. Pete Visclosky, and I again hosted in Merrillville, Indiana, on June 16. Vendors from federal, state and local security and law enforcement agencies, and various other private and public entities offered an exciting variety of jobs. The intellectual capital of Hoosiers is the hallmark of success in our state, and it was certainly on display this past month. Additionally, this issue of The Lugar Letter shares updates of legislative priorities including energy, Nunn-Lugar and U.S. policy in Iraq as well my ongoing efforts to provide effective constituent services, especially as Hoosiers have been affected by new travel requirements affecting U.S. passports. Thanks, again, for following my work in the United States Senate. Sincerely,
Lugar Senate Floor Speech Calls for Course Change in Iraq On Monday, June 25, 2007, Senator Lugar called for a change in course in Iraq in a speech on the floor of the United States Senate:
The current debate on Iraq in Washington has not been conducive to a thoughtful revision of our Iraq policy. Our debate is being driven by partisan political calculations and understandable fatigue with bad news -- including deaths and injuries to Americans. We have been debating and voting on whether to fund American troops in Iraq and whether to place conditions on such funding. We have contemplated in great detail whether Iraqi success in achieving certain benchmarks should determine whether funding is approved or whether a withdrawal should commence. I would observe that none of this debate addresses our vital interests any more than they are addressed by an unquestioned devotion to an ill-defined strategy of “staying the course” in Iraq.
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I rise today to offer observations on the continuing involvement of the United States in Iraq. In my judgment, our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond. Our continuing absorption with military activities in Iraq is limiting our diplomatic assertiveness there and elsewhere in the world. 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. And the strident, polarized nature of that debate increases the risk that our involvement in Iraq will end in a poorly planned withdrawal that undercuts our vital interests in the Middle East. Unless we recalibrate our strategy in Iraq to fit our domestic political conditions and the broader needs of U.S. national security, we risk foreign policy failures that could greatly diminish our influence in the region and the world.