Lugar Explains His Criticism of President Bush’s Plan for Iraq

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• MARGARET WARNER:

  When Senator Richard Lugar told his colleagues last night that the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is not working, Washington took notice. Lugar is former chairman, now ranking Republican, on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has consistently voted with the president on the war.

  But in last night's 40-minute speech, he said it's time to start reducing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq and to launch a new diplomatic offensive to protect America's long-term interests in the region. Senator Lugar joins us now to talk about all this.

  And, Senator Lugar, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

  SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), Indiana: Thank you, Margaret.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Why did you decide to speak out in this way? And why now?

• SEN. RICHARD LUGAR:

  I decided to speak because I think now is the time that the president has an opportunity to gain a bipartisan foreign policy in Iraq and in the Middle East. Specifically, the surge situation is one that is being brilliantly handled by our military, but the basic reasons, among many, were to give the Iraqis time, the Iraqi parliament time to pass laws, make fundamental decisions, to train Iraqi troops and policemen.

  And likewise, it was to try to cut down on sectarian violence. The president, in a very humane way, felt that somehow interposing our troops between Sunnis and Shiites who wanted to kill each other would mitigate some of that harm, and I think that it has.

  The problem is that the sectarian violence throughout Iraq is still pervasive. The parliament is not going to be able to take the essential steps. I saw the foreign minister of Iraq last week. He said, you've got to understand we need a consensus, not just 50 percent in the vote. Even if we get an oil law, it's not really clear that it could be enforced, that the oil that's now being siphoned off and the corrupt administration of Iraq could be handled, that the Iraqi administration could give constituent services.

  That's why I believe, rather than going on with the surge, waiting for General Petraeus' report and then subsequent reports and so forth, we ought to reposition our American forces in other places in Iraq where they have greater safety and certainty of being able to stay there and keep stability.

  We ought to bring some of them out of Iraq at this point, because the status of our Armed Forces is very stretched. We have obligations in the Middle East, but also around the world, so that's the reason for speaking out now in these terms.