President Bush on Wednesday renewed his call for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq, but Lawrence’s congressional delegation said something has to change.

After a news conference on a proposed teacher tax deduction, U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., said the surge of troops in Iraq cannot logistically be sustained.

“Militarily we have worked ourselves into a corner,” said Boyda, whose district includes western Lawrence. “We do not have the capacity to keep on going in this way.”

“The whole point of the surge was to create enough space so that this burgeoning democracy could take hold, and in fact that has not been the case,” she said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., whose district includes eastern Lawrence, was in Lawrence to talk with the Chamber of Commerce.

Afterward, he said: “We have sacrificed 3,500 American servicepeople over there. We’ve spent over $500 billion. We’ve been there longer than World War II took, and there needs to be some end.

“The Iraqi government needs to step up, and the people in Iraq need to support their government. If they won’t do that, I’m not sure we can help them anymore.”

And concerns about the situation in Iraq also came from U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican.

“We need to see evidence that the Iraqi government can function, and to date we have seen little to that effect,” Moran said after a news conference in Topeka about law enforcement funding.

Moran said that the U.S. military presence is at its limit.

“Our troops, whether they are active, reserve or guard, are overstayed and overworked,” he said.