TO SENATOR JOHN WARNER

Whose statesmanship will be missed after he retires in January 2009, con¬cluding 30 years in the Senate. Nonetheless, Warner’s decision to retire was correct and his reasoning graciously expressed, “to yield the right to others to advance.” At 80 years old, and having served his country in World War II and the Korean War, this Republican and Virginian has more than earned his retirement. A former Navy secretary and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has followed his conscience and demonstrated bipartisanship. And in the Senate hearings on Iraq progress in September, Warner showed why the high regard widely accorded him is deserved, and why there will be no diminishing of duty through his final year. His firm question to Gen. David Petraeus was the one that went to the heart of the Iraq issue: Will the current strategy in Iraq make America safer?