Washington - United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released a statement denouncing alleged plans to escalate U.S. troop levels in Iraq. Menendez also endorsed a legislative measure advanced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) that aims to prevent President Bush from deploying more troops to Iraq.

"Two months ago, the American people voted to change the direction in Iraq. I hoped then that the president was listening to the message they sent, but we now know he is turning a deaf ear. Tonight he is set to announce an escalation of a war which has already claimed the lives of more than 3000 of Americas bravest soldiers. Instead of giving us a new strategy, he seems intent on stubbornly compounding his previous mistakes by making new ones. His new plan for escalating this war contradicts the advice of his own generals, ignores the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, and sticks a thumb in the eye of the American people.

President Bush has had ample opportunity to change course, and he simply refuses to do so. It is time for Congress to exercise its power and fulfill the wishes of the American people by changing the direction in Iraq. I will vote for the Democratic resolution condemning this escalation, and I hope the Senate will act on the proposal I am working with Senator Edward Kennedy on to block the president from sending more soldiers into a situation we know is failing. The solution to the crisis in Iraq is to force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future by beginning a redeployment of U.S. forces and finding a political solution to the sectarian violence. Its time to take the training wheels off of Prime Minister Malikis government and the Iraqi army. Sacrificing more American lives for a failed strategy will do nothing but further coddle the Iraqi leadership and prolong our engagement."

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