Commentary: Reason versus recklessness

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 | 7:40 a.m.

A we ek ago the most compelling news from Congress was the speech given by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in which he chastised President Bush's strategy in Iraq and his overall leadership on Middle East issues.

Lugar, whose decades in Congress have brought him widespread respect, expressed no faith in the president's desperate escalation of the Iraq war, called for a plan to downsize our military presence there and said diplomacy is the path to preserving our interests throughout the Middle East.

Lugar said the current debate in Washington is oriented too much toward disputes over Iraq, when the possibility of our forces ultimately achieving Bush's objective is becoming increasingly remote.

He called for recognizing our military limitations there while understanding our options throughout the region on economic and diplomatic fronts.

It was a speech that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called "brilliant," and said could be a turning point in the Iraq war. We said Lugar had given Congress and the president a new framework for Middle East policy and we urged both to begin immediately working toward that end.

Lugar appeared Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation" to follow up on his speech and pledge continued leadership toward a new day for U.S. Middle East policy.

"I believe it's important for the president to get together with a bipartisan group of people in the Congress, which I'm prepared to be a part of," Lugar said.

With Lugar's voice of reason now being added to others in the new Democratic-controlled Congress, there is hope that the era of tragic recklessness in the Middle East, ushered in by Bush, will soon come to an end.