Bush Ally Calls for Withdrawal

Sen. Richard Lugar, a respected figure in the Republican Party and a traditional backer of the president’s war policy, has broken with the White House and called for a draw-down of troops in Iraq—ahead of the much-touted September review of the surge. In what some have described as a watershed speech on the Senate floor, Lugar warned that the coming election would make rational policy choices in Iraq politically unrealistic.

NPR:

Sen. Richard Lugar, one of the Senate’s most senior Republicans and a respected voice on foreign affairs, has broken ranks with the Bush administration over the issue of Iraq, calling for the U.S. to downsize its military role there.

Lugar (R-IN) said the White House strategy on Iraq is not working and that the U.S. should draw down its troop commitment.

The unusually blunt assessment comes as a surprise. Most Republicans have said they were willing to wait until September to see whether Bush’s recently ordered troop buildup in Iraq was working.

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