Bush presses Congress to pass war funding request
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Flanked by the US military brass at the Pentagon, President George W. Bush appealed to Congress Thursday to end an impasse over funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The missions of this department are essential to saving Americans' lives. And they are too important to be disrupted or delayed or put at risk," Bush said.
Key Democrats immediately blamed Bush for the impasse, and said they would provide funds if Bush proposes "a responsible plan" for bringing home US troops from Iraq by December 2008.
"We cannot stay in Iraq forever," said Representative David Obey, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. "The president should accept these conditions and come up with a responsible plan to bring our troops home."
The president's 196.4 billion dollar request for war funding has stalled in the Congress since Bush threatened to veto a 50 billion dollar Democratic measure that would set a timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq.
Bush spoke after meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon to discuss long term US military requirements looking beyond the current conflicts.
At his side were Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the chiefs of the military services.
Only Bush spoke, but he said the military had warned that the delay would "soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of this department."
"The American people expect us to work together to support our troops. That's what they want," he said.
"They do not want disputes in Washington to undermine our troops in Iraq, just as they're seeing clear signs of success," he said.
"I ask Congress to provide this essential funding to our troops, before the members leave on their Christmas vacation," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said he will not consider another war funding measure this year, vowed to continue to fight for a change in war strategy.
"Bush Republicans have indefinitely committed our military to a civil war that has taken a tremendous toll on our troops and our ability to respond to other very real threats around the world," he said in a statement.
"They are so afraid of being held accountable for their failed war policy that they would rather leave our men and women on the battlefield shorthanded than work with us to adjust this disastrous strategy," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Republicans in the Senate were blocking consideration of the 50 billion dollar bill passed by the House earlier this month with a December 2008 withdrawal date.
"We have provided every penny that is currently necessary to fund Defense Department operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," Pelosi said.
"It is President Bush and his Republican allies in the Senate who are preventing extra funds from reaching our troops," she said.
Gates has warned that existing funding will carry the US army only to mid-February and the marines to mid-March.
He has said the army will have to temporarily lay off 100,000 civilian employees and 100,000 contractors if Congress does not provide war funding before then.
The Pentagon argues that the military operations are too difficult to manage with the piecemeal funding envisioned by the Democrat's proposed funding bill.
Bush quoted Gates as likening the Defense Department to "the world's biggest supertanker. It cannot turn on a dime, and I cannot steer it like a skiff."
