WASHINGTON
(AP) -- An Illinois congressional candidate who lost both her legs
during combat in Iraq said Saturday that President Bush has no real
strategy for securing the war-ravaged nation, just political talk
designed to appeal to voters.
"Instead of a plan or a strategy,
we get shallow slogans like 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Stay the
Course,"' former Army Capt. Tammy Duckworth said in the Democrats'
weekly radio address. "Those slogans are calculated to win an election.
But they won't help us accomplish our mission in Iraq."
Duckworth's
address served as a response to the president's weekly radio talk and
gave the Democratic Party a chance to showcase one of its strongest
candidates as it seeks to regain control of the House in November's
elections.
Duckworth, who copiloted a Black Hawk helicopter that
crashed while under a rocket grenade attack almost two years ago, also
criticized Bush and others in his administration for accusing anyone
who challenges the president's policies of "cutting and running."
"Well,
I didn't cut and run, Mr. President. Like so many others, I proudly
fought and sacrificed," Duckworth said. "My helicopter was shot down
long after you proclaimed 'mission accomplished."'
At a GOP
fund-raiser Thursday in Alabama, Bush said, "The party of FDR and the
party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run."
Duckworth
is seeking the suburban Chicago seat being vacated by conservative
Republican Rep. Henry Hyde. She is running against Illinois state Sen.
Peter Roskam, the man Hyde has endorsed.
In her address,
Duckworth, now a major in the Illinois National Guard, also lashed out
at the GOP-led Congress for refusing to do its job of holding the Bush
administration accountable for its flawed Iraq policy.
"We need a
Congress that will ask the tough questions and work together for
solutions rather than attacking the patriotism of those who disagree,"
she said. "It is time to encourage Iraqi leaders to take control of
their own county and make the tough choices that will stop the civil
war and stabilize the country."
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