Lott: Appropriately Skeptical - What's Next in Iraq

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GCN Guest Opinion
Appropriately Skeptical
What's Next in Iraq
by: Sen. Trent Lott Filed 1/12/07 GCN

Leading up to President Bush%u2019s speech outlining the new strategy for Iraq, I was appropriately skeptical. There was a lot of preliminary talk about sending more forces to Iraq in a %u201Ctroop surge.%u201D Given that Mississippi%u2019s active military and guard members have made a large contribution to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, I feel it my duty to carefully scrutinize the proposal. It would have been inappropriate either to adopt or dismiss the pending plan before it was presented to the nation. I talked to the President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, the Defense Secretary and other officials, asking questions and raising concerns.

The plan recognizes something I%u2019ve said for months: The status quo in Iraq is unacceptable, and we%u2019ve got to dramatically change the dynamics there. This new approach has the capacity to do that."