With his glasses sitting dangerously close to the tip of his nose, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., leaned over the lectern in the Wilson Hall Auditorium on Monday and told students that the situation in Iraq is grave and a change of direction is necessary.
"When we attacked Iraq, we blew the top off the boiling Iraqi pot without a plan to keep the pot from boiling over," the Michigan Democrat told about 200 students. "We are paying the price for a failed strategy."
In a 30-minute somber talk riddled with Senate testimony and direct quotes from government officials, Levin laid out facts he said showed Iraq is sliding into chaos.
"The president is incapable of rebuilding the bridges to the international committee that he disabled," Levin said. "It is a direct threat to our security."
Levin is the leading Democrat on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, which authorizes funding for major weapons systems, defense intelligence, and troops. His other responsibilities include sitting on the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, and the Great Lakes Task Force.
MSU officials said students are lucky to have the opportunity to discuss issues with a high-ranking senator.
"Sen. Levin is viewed as one of very few experts on national security and U.S foreign policy," said Howard Gobstein, MSU's associate vice president for governmental affairs who works in Washington D.C. "His views are not to be taken lightly."
First elected in 1978, Levin is one of the senior members of the Senate.
"He does his homework in depth," Gobstein said.
And students took advantage of Levin's inside access to the government by peppering him with questions when he finished speaking. Questions ranged from why the threat of terrorism wasn't recognized during the Clinton administration, to if a draft will be necessary to complete the job in Iraq.
Levin said the Clinton administration tried to have Osama bin Laden killed, and he does not see a draft in America's future.
"I cut out of work early to come see him," said Chelsey Benjamin, a political theory and constitutional democracy and journalism sophomore said. "How often do you get to sit five rows back from a U.S. senator?"
Benjamin said she agreed with Levin's comments about Iraq and that a change of administration is needed.
But other students were skeptical.
"There's a lot of problems in Iraq, obviously," no-preference sophomore Mike Leahy said. "There's always going to be problems when you invade a country.
"It's always easy to say what's wrong, but you have to fix it."
Leahy said he respects Levin as a senator who has been in office for a long time and has researched the issues in Iraq.
"He's at least on the committees that would know," he said. "But at the same time, it's an election year, so they're all going to put their spin on it."
