(Host) Vermont’s congressional delegation is weighing in on President Bush’s address to the nation last night, and all three members remain critical of the president’s war strategy despite the call to bring some troops home.
Senator Patrick Leahy said, "It seems clear that the President has no idea how to end this war and has every intention of laying it on the door step of the next president."
Senator Bernie Sanders also questions whether the President has an exit strategy, and adds that "Bush’s troop withdrawal program will leave us with as many troops in Iraq as we had before the surge troop build up." That’s 130,000 troops.
Congressman Peter Welch agreed with the two senators that there’s no end in sight. Welch says Bush "continues to blindly pursue a failed military strategy for a civil war that demands a political and economic solution."
Sanders and Leahy both point out in statements that this war has gone on longer than World War II.
All three members are calling for troops to come home. Congressman Welch added, "it’s imperative that Congress finally use the power of the purse to end this war."