Representative Strickland to Bush "Just asking America to stay the course won’t cut it anymore"

As public support for the war in Iraq wanes, the majority of Ohio’s congressional delegation would not give a direct answer about whether the war has been worth the costs, according to a newspaper’s survey.
However, following Tuesday’s national address made by President Bush, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Dover, called for the president to answer the nation’s questions about the war.

"Tonight, President Bush told America what we already know," said Strickland Tuesday. "Unfortunately, the President did not spell out a credible exit U.S. strategy from Iraq. It’s one thing to tell America that we must help Iraq achieve the ability to fully govern and police itself before we can completely withdraw from that nation. It is quite another to spell out what specific benchmarks must be met in order to reduce our involvement in Iraq and start bringing our troops home.

"We need to know that the President and his advisors have a clear idea of what future steps must be taken to achieve an honorable withdrawal of American troops from Iraq," he continued. "The American people expect President Bush to set definite goals for training Iraqi troops, restoring critical infrastructure and dealing with other problems in Iraq.

"Just asking America to stay the course won’t cut it anymore," Strickland said.

Americans are dying, thousands of our troops are being injured, billions of our dollars are being wasted, and the cost of this war is being passed on to future generations. America needs for the President to give us a solid, well thought-out and credible exit strategy aimed at bringing our soldiers home safely and soon. Sadly, the President failed to do that."

Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic congressmen from Ohio told The Columbus Dispatch that the world is safer after Saddam Hussein’s fall from power or that they support the troops even if they didn’t vote to support the war.

A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll found public doubts about the war reaching a high point, with about 53 percent of Americans regarding the war as a mistake. About 56 percent disapprove of the Bush administration’s handling of the war but about that same number support keeping troops in Iraq until the country has been stabilized.

The Columbus Dispatch asked the senators and House members from Ohio to write their opinions in 100 words about whether the costs of the war have been worth the benefits. Only Republican Reps. Steven LaTourette and Ralph Regula did not respond.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Columbus Republican, said he wanted to rephrase the question to ask whether the United States and the Middle East are better off without Saddam in charge, which he concluded is true.

Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Lorain, criticized the tactics used in bringing the country to war but said the world is safer without Saddam in power.

Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said public support has fallen as casualties have climbed. More than 1,700 Americans have died in Iraq. But the change in public opinion hasn’t mirrored anti-war sentiment from national leaders, he said.

For the most part, the public still supports the troops and ongoing efforts to stabilize the country, but Americans are more critical of the war and the administration than lawmakers, Kohut said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland, is among the most critical of both the Ohio delegation and the House as a whole. Kucinich, who ran for president as a long-shot candidate in the last race, is part of a small bipartisan group of lawmakers asking President Bush to remove troops from Iraq by October 2006.

Bush has stated he will not work on a timeline while stabilizing the country.

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