GOP Senator Faults Bush on Iraq

Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar on Saturday said the United States isn’t doing enough to stave off terrorism and chided President Bush for failing to offer solid plans for Iraq’s future.

Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said “repairing and building alliances” is key to avoiding terrorism.

He also said it’s still unclear how much control the Iraqi people will have over their nation’s security when power is transferred to them June 30.

“I am very hopeful that the president and his administration will articulate precisely what is going to happen as much as they can, day by day, as opposed to a generalization,” the Indiana senator said during an appearance at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

It’s not the first time that Lugar has criticized Bush, a fellow Republican. In 2003, Lugar and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the committee’s top Democrat, said that Bush had allowed too much infighting among his senior advisors, damaging his ability to present a clear picture of his plans for postwar Iraq.

Also Saturday, Lugar blamed the Bush and Clinton administrations for not adequately funding the foreign affairs budget, noting that the military’s budget is more than 13 times what the nation spends for diplomacy.

Lugar said the military alone can’t fight terrorism.

“To win the war against terrorism, the United States must assign U.S. economic and diplomatic capabilities the same strategic priority that we assign to military capabilities,” he said.

He later added, “Military action is necessary to defeat serious and immediate threats to our national security. But ... military action will often breed more terrorists and more resentment of the United States.”