"After more than three years, more than 2,700 US deaths and tens of thousands of wounded, this administration still lacks a plan for securing Iraq. And the leaders of Congress still refuse to do their job of holding the administration accountable," said Duckworth, a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in the November 7 balloting.

"Instead of a plan or a strategy, we get shallow slogans like 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Stay the Course'," Duckworth said in the Democrats' response to US President George W. Bush's weekly radio address.

"Those slogans are calculated to win an election. But they won't help us accomplish our mission in Iraq," she said.

Duckworth, who is running for an open US Congress seat in November's midterm election, is the best known of several Iraq war veterans vying for office.

Democrats hope to regain control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in November because of public anger over Iraq and scandals that have hit the Republican Party, and have recruited a large number of Iraq veterans for election races across the United States.

A US Army National Guard helicopter pilot in Iraq, Duckworth lost both legs when the Blackhawk helicopter she was copiloting shot down in November 2004.

The neophyte Democratic politician, whose mother is Thai, has received numerous high-profile endorsements, including one from former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and retired general Wesley Clark.