WASHINGTON - December 19 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement today in advance of President Bush's address to the nation:

"This Administration misled this nation into war, and continues to invoke patriotic platitudes and provoke fear to mislead the public in order to continue the ill-advised occupation of Iraq.

"The President's claims to a have a "victory strategy" is about as accurate and truthful as his claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In his latest round of speeches, the President has offered the American public nothing more than the same failed logic, failed policy and failed rhetoric that misled this nation into war, and keeps us there. Our troops and their families deserve more than politics as usual from the President. They deserve a real and concrete plan to bring our troops home. The President has failed to provide such a plan.

"The American people are tired of the same old rhetoric. It is time for a plan for withdrawal, a plan to bring all of our troops home.

"The President must be honest with the American people, and stop the spying and the lying. Things are going badly in Iraq, and our presence as an occupying force is counterproductive.

"No country can be free while being occupied by a foreign force. Iraq is a sovereign nation. For Iraq to succeed as a free nation, decision about the future of the country must be made in Baghdad not Washington. That is why I have introduced bipartisan legislation, H Con. Res. 321, calling on the new Iraqi parliament to vote on the future of the US occupation.

"In speech after speech the President has tried to convince a skeptical public to have confidence in his leadership of the war in Iraq. The President will continue to fail at his goal as long as he continues to fail to provide the American public with what they want, a real and detailed plan to end the war in Iraq, and bring our troops home."

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