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WASHINGTON, DC – Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson and colleagues Senator John Warner of Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine today officially introduced in the Senate their bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush’s proposal to send an additional 21,500 American soldiers to Iraq to quell the sectarian violence.
“I disagree with the president’s plan to augment the number of American forces in Iraq. And it’s our responsibility to express this disagreement to the president on behalf of Americans who chose us to represent them,” Senator Nelson said. “Our resolution offers a new set of ideas, more broadly worded, and more likely to win strong bipartisan support in the Senate.”
The resolution offered by Nelson, Warner and Collins includes the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations and stresses the importance of benchmarks and goals for the Iraqi government.
“At the end of the day, we feel it’s important to send a strong and unified message to the White House and Iraq. And the more support the resolution receives in the Senate, the stronger our message will be,” Nelson said.
Joining Senators Nelson, Warner and Collins as original cosponsors are Senators Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida and Gordon Smith or Oregon.
Nelson today also welcomed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee action on a competing resolution offered by Senators Chuck Hagel, Joe Biden and Carl Levin. Nelson said, “I welcome the Foreign Relations Committee’s action and now I look forward to working with my colleagues on developing a resolution that can be more broadly supported by members from both sides of the political aisle. At the end of the day, our goal is broad bipartisan support for a clear message to the president that expresses our disagreement with his new plan for sending more troops to Iraq.”
To read the text of Senator Nelson’s resolution visit www.bennelson.senate.gov.
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