Associated Press - Ill. Democrat: Bush Iraq Plan Is Broken

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Associated Press - Ill. Democrat: Bush Iraq Plan Is Broken

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's strategy in Iraq isn't working, a Democratic congresswoman said Saturday as she repeated calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who visited Iraq with a congressional delegation in August, delivered her party's weekly radio address. She said this year's buildup in U.S. troops "failed to achieve its main goal — reducing the violence so that progress could be made on key political benchmarks."

Schakowsky said Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told the delegation that the United States will be in Iraq for another nine or 10 years. "That was not the timetable I nor most Americans had in mind," the congresswoman said.

Congress returns Tuesday from its August recess. Petraeus is to testify to Congress during the week of Sept. 10, and Bush is to deliver his own progress report by Sept. 15.

The president met privately at the Pentagon on Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. While the military chiefs expressed concern about the growing strain on troops and their families, indications are that Bush intends to stick with his current approach in Iraq, at least into 2008.

"Most Democrats and a growing number of Republicans have come to the same conclusion — the best way to protect our troops is to end this war in Iraq," said Schakowsky, a member of the House's Out of Iraq caucus.

"With the president stubbornly continuing to stay the course in Iraq, I urge my Republican colleagues to join with Democrats and the vast majority of Americans who are demanding a new direction," she said.

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