"We need a new direction," said Inouye, who voted against giving President Bush the authority to go to war in 2002. "That new direction, as I have advocated earlier, is a phased redeployment of troops from Iraq with us leaving the battlefield with honor."

"The Iraqi government must take more responsibility for ensuring their nation's own security," said Akaka, who also voted against the war resolution in 2002. "A phased redeployment of U.S. troops will give the Iraqi security forces the primary combat role in protecting and defending their own nation."

The United States cannot continue "indefinitely squandering its resources and its soldiers' lives," said Akaka, who, like all other members of the Hawai'i delegation, is a Democrat.

"It is time to put the future of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people and their elected leaders," he said.

"Our men and women in uniform have accomplished everything asked of them in Iraq and everything they are capable of," she said. "Even if the troop surge has had limited success in improving security in some areas of Iraq, the surge is not sustainable over time and has not accomplished its goal, which was to provide an opportunity for Iraq to make necessary political progress."

"We are in a situation in which we're saying there is only one plan for Iraq, militarily speaking — indefinite occupation by U.S. troops," said Abercrombie, who also voted against the 2002 war resolution and is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. "We are occupying that country politically and militarily and we are going to suffer the results."

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.