Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana calls for a stratgey in Iraq that "anticipates a political endgame and employs every possible means to achieve it."

That was Lugar's comment as the American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, appeared to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lugar is the ranking Republican member of that committee.

Lugar says the troop surge is improving conditions on the ground and creating "breathing space" for exploring political accomodation.

He says economic activity has improved and a few initial political benchmarks have been achieved.

But the Senator says operations in Iraq have severely strained the U.S. military, imposing limits on the size and length of future deployments there.