0
I'll reveal the identities later.
1) ____________ said yesterday that the Bush administration has "blundered" and that the United States should not be trying to increase troop strength. "We should instead be working toward an exit strategy," he said. "Surely, I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development. Surely, the administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper into the maelstrom of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate country."
2) ____________ on Monday called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam" and said the situation has created a credibility gap between the president and Americans.
3) "America will not be intimidated by barbaric acts whose only goal is to spread fear and chaos throughout Iraq," _______________ said in a moving floor speech last Thursday after the initial attacks that began the weeklong string of violence. "Yesterday's events will only serve to strengthen America's resolve and seal America's unity. The brave people who lost their lives did not die in vain. Americans stand together today and always to finish the work we started and bring peace and democracy to the citizens of Iraq."
4) _____________ said on NBC's "Today" show that the United States must "stay the course. This is really as much a test of our perseverance as anything else," he said, though he cautioned that Americans must be prepared for the conflict. "It's going to be difficult. We're going to have too many days ahead of tragedy like yesterday, unfortunately."
5) "Our troops on the ground in Iraq now are too few in number to battle the insurgents and establish the civil order needed to ensure Iraq does not descend into civil war. We should apply the Powell doctrine of overwhelming military force in Iraq now to protect our troops and protect the Iraqi people from this new wave of violence," said ______________________
6) _________________ has stayed clear of specifying what course he thinks should be taken in Iraq. But he is sharply critical of the administration's policy, calling it "one of the greatest failures of diplomacy and failures of judgment that I have seen in all the time that I've been in public life." He also hinted at a parallel between Iraq and Vietnam. "Since . . . Vietnam, I have not seen an arrogance in our foreign policy like this." Earlier, in an interview on National Public Radio, _____________ called Sheik Mouqtada al-Sadr a "legitimate voice," before immediately correcting himself and calling the radical Shi'ite cleric just "a voice." "It's interesting to hear that when they shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq and, well, let me change the term 'legitimate.' When they shut a newspaper that belongs to a voice, because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment," ____________________ said.
