Reid, Pelosi: No blank check on Iraq

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday have warned President Bush he no longer has a "blank check" for Iraq.

The two congressional leaders appeared before the National Press Club in what was described as a pre-State of the Union session. Pelosi, D-Calif., went through a litany of problems facing the United States, ranging from healthcare to climate change.

"Escalating our military involvement in Iraq will not reverse these negative effects," she said. "It will only add to them."

Pelosi said the violence plaguing Iraq does not have a military solution. Rather, she said, the problems should be solved diplomatically and politically.

Reid, D-Nev., criticized the president's plan to send 20,000 additional troops to Iraq as "more of the same."

"The Iraq war has now lasted longer than World War II, a war that took us to faraway Okinawa, across North Africa, and throughout the entire continent of Europe. In the time it took FDR (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ) and (his successor, Harry S.) Truman to defeat Hitler and Tojo, this president has been unable to find a plan that protects our strategic interests and accomplishes this mission," Reid said.