MONTPELIER, Vt. -- U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is objecting to wording accompanying a portrait of President George Bush installed at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

Sanders, a strong opponent of the Iraq war, has asked the Smithsonian to rewrite the text that says Bush's two terms in office were "marked by a series of catastrophic event" including the "the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Sanders says the notion that the terrorist attacks were linked to or led to the Iraq war has been widely debunked.

In a letter to the gallery director Martin Sullivan, he has asked the Smithsonian to rewrite the text, to avoid what he calls rewriting history.

Museum spokeswoman Bethany Bentley says museum officials were preparing a response to Sanders and did not want to comment.