The following is adapted from a speech given Monday night on the floor of the Senate by Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, as it appears in the Washington Post. Thanks to Mike Cruz for passing it along for our readers.

In my judgment, our course in Iraq has lost contact with our 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 “surge” strategy will succeed as originally envisioned by the president are very limited within the period framed by our 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 interests in the Middle East.

The current debate in Washington has not been conducive to a thoughtful revision of 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.

Read it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601688.html?referrer=emailarticle