BEREA — U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Berea Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that “a long-term deployment of U.S. troops somewhere in the Middle East” would be the best way to protect America from a future terrorist attack.

The chants of about 60 protesters outside on the sidewalks could be heard inside the Boone Tavern dinning room, as McConnell told a sold-out luncheon of 150 that “the war on terror” was the biggest issue facing the country. There also were about 10 McConnell and war supporters outside.

Assessments due next month from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, will still leave questions, said McConnell, who was elected Republican leader of the Senate early this year.

Unless it makes dramatic moves in the next few days, Crocker’s report “will not have much good to say about the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,” the four-term senator said. Based on what he has heard from colleagues who have visited Iraq this summer, McConnell said Petraeus would likely report the U.S. troop build-up this year “is doing well.”

After those two reports come in, however, Congress and the president must still decide, “Where do we go from here?”

Americans would not accept the “police state” environment that would allow the country to rely on a defense-only strategy against terrorism, McConnell said. While not using the president’s name, the senator agreed in principle with the “offensive strategy” that the Bush administration adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. soil.

“While a war that drags on for years is bound to be drained of public support, there have been no successful attacks on our homeland in nearly six years,” McConnell said.

He divided the opponents of the Iraq war into two groups, “those who opposed it from the beginning, and others who think it has not gone well.”

Avoiding the issue of a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops, which even some his fellow Republican senators have begun to support, McConnell compared his Middle East proposal to the stationing of U.S. troops in South Korea after an armistice ended the Korean conflict in 1953.

Because of the U.S. troops there, South Korea has become a stable country with a democratic government and a capitalist economy, McConnell said.

He identified al Qaeda, the terrorist organization behind the 2001 terrorist attacks, and Iran as the two biggest threats to American safety. Dealing with those adversaries in their home region would be better than “dealing with them in Washington, D.C., and in New York City,” he said.

A long-term commitment of U.S. troops to the Middle East “should be about us and nobody else,” McConnell said. Iran and al Qaeda, however, also are the biggest security concerns of three U.S. allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.

Destroying the obsolete chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot is the biggest federal issue of local concern, McConnell said. While the project “may not be a priority for the military, its a huge issue to us,” he said. He described the military’s attitude toward the treaty-required destruction as one of “I’d rather be doing something else.”

McConnell said he sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who took office in December, that persuaded the Pentagon chief to include more funding for chemical weapons destruction in the Bush’s budget proposal.

The crowd laughed after McConnell said, “My goal is to live long enough to see those darn weapons destroyed.”

Congress will not pass an immigration reform bill that “gives preferential treatment to people who have come into the United States illegally,” McConnell predicted. That was the reason the senator said he opposed the Bush administration’s failed immigration proposal earlier this year.

Immigration reform measures acted upon separately would have better chances of passage than any comprehensive approach, he said. McConnell spoke positively of increasing the number of visas awarded to workers in high-tech industries that cannot meet their needs by hiring American citizens.

“Our education system is not producing enough graduates who are proficient in science, math and engineering,” he said. Until the nation produces enough young people fill the demand for high-tech jobs, bringing foreign-born workers to the United States is better than having American industry take operations to where the high-tech workers are.

McConnell also spoke in favor of a “biometric identification system” that would allow U.S. employers to easily and confidently recognize whether a job applicant was in the country legally.

He proposed two ways of making health insurance more affordable to the 40 million Americans who are uninsured. Tax incentives would lead more employers to offer the benefit to their workers, he said. And, health care costs would be kept lower if left in the private sector in which providers must compete.

That approach has worked with the Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, McConnell said. “It’s the only government program I know of that has come in under budget.” After some initial problems, the program now has an 85 percent approval rating from participants.

Members of the U.S. Senate have “large egos and sharp elbows,” McConnell said, describing his party role as “leading the unleadable.” Unlike most of the world’s legislative bodies, a majority of the senate’s 100 members is not enough to pass legislation.

“America’s founding fathers designed the Senate to be the brakes of the legislative process,” and current rules allow as few as 41 senators to block action. “Nothing can get done on a purely partisan basis,” McConnell said. Shaping or blocking legislation are the main two options available to a Senate minority.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.