Lugar Discusses Iraq Pullout Strategy

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Indiana Senator Richard Lugar says the U.S. will have to reduce its troop presence in Iraq — the question is how fast and by how much.

The ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee says the army can't take the strain of committing this many troops to Iraq. He says the Bush administration needs to focus on how to turn the progress made by last year's troop surge into a strategy for stabilizing Iraq politically.

Lugar says the military has achieved all it can, and further progress is up to the Iraqi government... a government he says is riddled with corruption and incompetence.

Lugar spoke at the start of committee hearings with American commander in Iraq David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

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