Congresswoman calls for new Iraq strategy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, giving the Democratic response to President George Bush’s weekly radio talk. called Saturday for a new U.S. strategy in Iraq.

Schakowsky, who represents Illinois, spoke of her recent trip to Iraq and said Gen. David Petraeus told them U.S. forces would have to remain there for at least a decade.

Petraeus made his presentation during a formal dinner at Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s residence.

“And yet while we were choosing between coffee, tea, or espresso to go with our dessert, outside in the 120-degree heat on that very day, Aug. 6, four U.S. soldiers were killed by an IED blast in Diyala, one British soldier was shot in Basra, six street cleaners were blown up, 33 Iraqis were killed in a residential neighborhood in Tal Afar and 17 bodies killed by death squads were discovered,” Schakowsky said.

Schakowsky said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh warned the delegation that a political settlement “won’t be done this September and it won’t be done next September.”

Bush, in his radio address, talked about his response to the subprime mortgage crisis.