House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have written to the president opposing the deployment of more troops. Adding combat troops, they argued, would only endanger more Americans and stretch the nation’s military to the breaking point for no strategic gain. On Sunday, Pelosi said Congress would not give the president a blank check and that President Bush would have to justify the sending of extra troops to Iraq. Democratic Senator Joseph Biden also criticized President Bush’s push for more troops.

Sen. Joseph Biden: “The question is: Do we continue with a policy that is failing? We’ve tried this policy twice in the last 12 months, surging troops into Baghdad. Unfortunately, my friends have got this backward. We need a political solution before you can get a military solution. What has changed from three years ago, when I sat on this program and said we need to surge 60,000 troops then, is we now have a civil war.”

Biden spoke on NBC’s Meet the Press. During the interview, he also announced plans to run for president. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also appeared on the show and defended the president’s policy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: “We are not winning, and if you’re not winning, you’re losing. Now’s the time to come up with a strategy to win. The reason President Bush is going to do this is because he understands we have to win in Iraq. … We cannot let this country go into the abyss. Now is the last chance, the only chance we have left, to get this right.”