Sen. Lugar shares concerns about Iraq with home church
3/10/2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. NOTE: A photograph is available with this story. By Daniel R. Gangler* INDIANAPOLIS
(UMNS) - U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told his home congregation
that this will be a "fateful week" as the prospects of war and peace are
played out in relation to Iraq.
Lugar spoke Sunday, March 9, to
more than 400 fellow members at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in
Indianapolis during a noon "Lugar Luncheon," part of the church's 50th
anniversary celebration.
With more than 200,000 U.S. troops
deployed to the Middle East and ready for a showdown with Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, outlined the past 50 years of U.S. history in the context of
the current crisis with Iraq and terrorism.
He told the gathering
that 50 years ago he was on his way to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and
the Cold War was a new reality, with 13,000 Soviet nuclear warheads
pointed at U.S. targets. What was just as awesome back then, said Lugar,
was that the U.S. had a doctrine of firing back with nuclear weapons if
attacked.
A half-century ago, allied nation-states worked
together under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and countries at
odds with each other had official diplomatic channels to work through,
he said.
Today, said Lugar, the United States faces an enemy in
al-Qaida, an extreme Islamic fundamentalist group with no official
channels and no center of authority but that is international in scope.
"Our
fear is if terrorists ever succeed in getting into their hands nuclear
weapons or nuclear materials, things will change abruptly," Lugar said.
Things
changed abruptly after Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists used two planes
as missiles to destroy the World Trade Center. If any one of the
hijackers had a nuclear weapon, hundreds of thousands of people would
have died, Lugar said. "That would have been a holocaust of a different
kind, one beyond our comprehension."
The threat of weapons of
mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists is a possibility
that must be minimized, he said. Eliminating such weapons has been part
of his agenda to make the world safer.
In 1991, Lugar and Sen.
Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) sponsored the Cooperative Threat Reduction Act, which
led to the disarmament of the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal of
13,000 nuclear warheads. Lugar's involvement led to his nomination for a
Nobel Peace Prize.
The senator has visited Russia twice a year
since 1991 and has observed the dismantling of weapons of mass
destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. His
most recent visit was in December.
Today, that number stands at
6,000 warheads, and it will continue to decrease as the United States
and Russia work together in protecting that stockpile and in dismantling
all nuclear weapons, he said. Last week, the United States signed a
treaty with Russia to reduce the level to 2,000 warheads.
"Debt-reduction money must go to Russia to destroy weapons aimed at us,
and the Russians are willing to do it," he said.
His experiences
with Russia have made his insights valuable to the current Bush
administration. During an interview in the March 9 worship service,
Lugar told the congregation that National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice had talked with him by phone about going to Russia to meet with
leaders there this week. He also had met with President Bush 10 days
earlier, when the president outlined his moves for the next month.
"These
are fateful times," said Lugar. "This week is especially important." He
fears that "one way or another, al-Qaida will get it (nuclear
weapons)."
If the United States decides to take military action
against Saddam without U.N. support, "most nations will come back to
support us in Iraq," Lugar said. When and if this happens, then "we need
to welcome them back," he said.
As Russia used to do by playing
daily games of hiding weapons, Iraq continues to move and hide weapons
of mass destruction. "Our country isn't giving in to it," he said.
The
United States needs to continue talks with North Korea as well, he
said. "They still have 80,000 weapons pointed at Seoul." He disagrees
with President Bush's refusal to talk with North Korean officials. "We
can't let these weapons proliferate," he said.
When asked about the anti-war movement, Lugar said he welcomes demonstrations because they are part of being a democracy.
He
also answered a question about his Christian faith in relationship to
his role as senator. "Our faith is a living faith. It's the way we
conduct ourselves, and it comes from our roots. My roots are here," he
said, looking around the room. "We need to tell the truth, offer our
best and listen to advice. We need to stand up and make wise judgments.
We must understand our mortality. Faith speaks to our worries. And we
need to pray a lot."
The Lugar Luncheon was one of several
activities held at St. Luke's during the weekend. St. Luke's was formed
in March 1953 in an American Legion hall on the north side of
Indianapolis with 119 members. Today, the church has more than 5,000
members and an average weekly attendance of 3,300 worshipers in one of
11 services. The Rev. Kent Millard is the pastor.
# # #
*Gangler is director of communication, Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church
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