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George Bush Justifies Funding Goals
// Squabbles with Congress over Withdrawal, $100 Billion in Funding for Iraq and Afghanistan
US President George Bush undertook a second attempt yesterday to resolve the conflict between the branches of power over funding for US troops in Iraq. Mr. Bush suggested to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders that they gather in the White House for a meeting, at which the president hopes to break the legislators' resistance to allocating funds for the military operations in Iraq without setting a clear withdrawal date. If Congress ignores him and attempts to limit spending on the Iraq war, Mr. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, an ultimatum that the Democrats consider unacceptable.
George Bush launched his latest initiative in the ongoing saga of attempting to forge an agreement with congressional Democrats concerning the allocation of an additional $100 billion for the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during a speech at American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax, Virginia. Counting on the support of the American veterans, in his 37-minute speech the president painted a vivid picture of the irreparable consequences that could follow further delays in allocating funding for Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Bush also lashed out at his Democratic opponents in Congress, accusing them of putting their own political interests ahead of America's.
According to the president, failure to resolve the issue of funding before the middle of April will necessitate cost cutting on repairs for military technology and on training for soldiers. If the legislation continues to languish on Capitol Hill until the middle of May, he warned that the deployments of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq will have to be extended, because troop rotations will be impossible to manage in a timely manner.
The president's speech was full of unflattering appraisals of his political opponents. He accused the Democratic leadership in Congress of "pushing legislation that would undercut our troops, just as we're beginning to make progress in Baghdad," and "handcuffing our generals on the ground" by introducing "artificial timetables for withdrawal" of American troops. The president is staking his hopes for a way out of the situation on a personal meeting with congressional leaders, which he hopes to hold next week in the White House. The president also emphasized that he will only be satisfied with legislation that authorizes funding with no strings attached. If Congress continues to insist on setting a timetable for withdrawal, the president has promised to exercise his veto. The legislation in the House of Representatives includes a call to withdraw the troops before August 31, 2008, while the version in the Senate stipulates withdrawal within a 120-day period after the law is passed, meaning that the last American troops would leave Iraq by March 31, 2008.
White House press secretary Dana Perino emphasized yesterday that the president is not inviting the congressional leaders to the White House to haggle over timetables for troop withdrawal, which he considers inappropriate. "I want to note that we're not talking about any negotiations," she said. When a reporter asked whether that means, in essence, that the Democrats are being invited to the White House to agree with the president, Ms. Perino was obliged to admit that this is basically the case.
Unsurprisingly, the leaders of the Democratic majority in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, rejected the president's terms yesterday. Mr. Reid offered his own version of the source of George Bush's inflexibility: "The president has never before had to come to an agreement with Congress. In the past, the president did whatever he wanted. Here on Capitol Hill they just put a big rubber stamp on his decisions."
The Democrats also had another answer for Mr. Bush: an online conference that featured seven Democrats hopefuls in the 2008 presidential campaign, including lead runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, vying with each other to come across as the most cutting in their opposition to the president's Iraq policy. "The idea that the situation in Iraq will get better because all we need to bring order to a market in central Baghdad is 100 soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, and a pair of Apache helicopters to provide cover appears unconvincing and divorced from reality," said Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton was even more categorical in her remarks: "If the president does not end this war, I will do it when I become president."
Sergei Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 12, 2007
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