Gillibrand: Iraq policy changes needed

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- New York Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand said Saturday Democrats won't give up challenging President George Bush's strategy in Iraq.

Delivering the Democrats' response to the Republican president's weekly radio address, Gillibrand said U.S. troops "deserve a strategy for success in Iraq."

"Congress is challenging the administration's strategy in Iraq in favor of a better one that will effectively combat terrorism and create stability in the Middle East," Gillibrand said. "Time and time again, we voted for a strategy to redeploy troops out of Iraq to leave policing the streets to Iraqis and to focus our mission on anti-terrorism -- and we won't give up."

She said there needs to be pressure to force political reconciliation in Iraq that will result in stability and rejection of terrorism. That in turn, she said, will allow greater focus on addressing growing terrorist threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Gillibrand also said Democrats want to see healthcare reform, lower fuel prices, protection of family farms, an end to the mortgage crisis and investment in the nation's infrastructure, while exorcising fiscal discipline and producing balanced budgets.

"We cannot continue to deliver to our children and grandchildren a legacy of endless debt," she said.