Senator Bernard Sanders today announced that he will cosponsor legislation to be introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy that prevents the President from escalating the war and increasing the troop numbers in Iraq without the express consent of Congress. Kennedys legislation would prohibit the use of funds for the escalation of United States forces in Iraq without a specific authorization of Congress by law. Sanders said he and Kennedy were in agreement that the conditions which led to the original authorization for the Iraq war the purported existence of weapons of mass destruction and the supposed relationship of Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda were no longer relevant, as no weapons were found and Saddam Hussein has been executed. Since the reasons we were told that we were going to war no longer apply, the Congress must fulfill its Constitutional duties, and require a vote before we expand the war into a new phase, Sanders said. The great majority of the citizens of Vermont, and, in fact, the great majority of all Americans, do not want an escalation of the war. They want to provide the necessary funding to protect our troops and to bring them home as soon as possible, Sanders said today. The military leaders on the ground have not asked for additional troops, and, in my view, the President is moving in exactly the wrong direction. We should be figuring out how to bring our brave troops home not send more of them into the quagmire in Iraq.