Bush calls next few months critical for strategy in Iraq

WHTIE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush says the next few months will be critical for his troop buildup in Iraq.

At a White House news conference today, the president said he expects heavy fighting in Iraq over the next few weeks and months and more American and Iraqi casualties.

The president says the last five brigades of his troop buildup -- about 15,000 troops -- are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad next month.

An Iraq funding bill currently before Congress will help pay for the president's troop buildup designed to secure Baghdad and other volatile areas.

Bush says the measure will also help put more pressure on the Iraqi government to perform better.

Bush supports $120B Iraq war compromise

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush said he supports a $120 billion Iraq war spending bill on track to to pass Congress Thursday, ending weeks of wrangling with congressional Democrats on how long U.S. troops should stay.

The bill funds the war through September as Bush wanted and does not set a date for troop withdrawals. In exchange for dropping restrictions on the military, Bush agreed to some $17 billion in spending added by Democrats to fund domestic and military-related projects.

“By voting for this bill, members of both parties can show our troops and the Iraqis and the enemy that our country will support our service men and women in harm’s way,” Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference.

Democrats said they were disappointed with the deal.

“I hate this agreement,” said Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Obey said the deal was the best that Democrats could do manage because “the White House is in a cloud somewhere in terms of understanding the realities in Iraq.”

The bill includes the nearly $100 billion that President Bush requested for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as billions in domestic spending, including $6.4 billion in hurricane relief and $3 billion in agricultural assistance.

Republicans were unhappy about the added domestic spending, but said they were relieved the final measure did not attempt to set a timetable on the war.

“We cannot and will not abandon the Iraqis to be butchered by these terrorists in their midst,” said Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif. “And we cannot and will not abandon our mission just as real progress is starting to be made.”

While the measure does not include a timetable on the war, it does threaten to withhold U.S. aid dollars for Iraq if Baghdad fails to make progress on political and security reforms. The president, however, could waive that restriction.

Bush said Iraq’s ability to meet the benchmarks outlined in the bill would be difficult.

“It’s going to be hard work for this young government,” he said. “After all, the Iraqis are recovering from decades of brutal dictatorship.”

The hefty spending bill has become a lightning rod for political attacks on Bush and his handling of the deeply unpopular war, which has killed more than 3,400 U.S. troops and cost more than $300 billion. But it also has exposed a sharp divide among Democrats on how far Congress should go to end the war.

Democratic presidential contenders on Capitol Hill are vying for the anti-war vote, but at the same time do not want to appear as though they are turning their backs on the military.

“I believe as long as we have troops in the front line, we’re going to have to protect them,” said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del. “We’re going to have to fund them.”

Biden was alone among the potential Democratic candidates in immediately pledging his support for the bill.

Two front-runners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, declined to say how they intended to vote on the measure.

Challengers Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) of Connecticut and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio said they would oppose the measure because in their view it issued a blank check to President Bush on the Iraq war.

“Half-measures and equivocations are not going to change our course in Iraq,” Dodd said in a statement. “If we are serious about ending the war, Congress must stand up to this president’s failed policy now — with clarity and conviction.”

Democratic leaders planned multiple votes in the House on Thursday to ensure the measure would ultimately pass because of disagreements among members on elements of the bill. One vote was to be on war funding, while another would be to approve the extra money for domestic and military-related projects.

While liberal Democrats were expected to vote against the war funds measure, GOP members were expected to make up for the losses. On the added spending, Democrats likely were to be unified in their support for the measure, overcoming GOP objections.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070524/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

Bush demands real progress from Iraq, warns Iran

by Stephen Collinson

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush warned Thursday that Iraq must repay the sacrifice of US soldiers with real progress, as Congress got set to pass a new war budget stripped of Democratic withdrawal timetables.

Bush also used a White House news conference to make clear that the United States and its European allies would seek to toughen sanctions on Iran over its defiance of UN demands to rein in its nuclear program.

And he cautioned there would be more American and Iraqi casualties in the bitter fighting raging in Iraq, acknowledging the next few months would be critical for his new troop surge strategy.

The House of Representatives is due to vote Thursday on a 120-billion dollar bill funding combat operations through September, ironically, framed by Democratic leaders who disown many of its contents.

The Senate will get its chance to vote, either late Thursday or Friday, before the bill, if it passes as expected, is sent for Bush’s signature, after a bruising showdown over the bloody, costly and increasingly unpopular war.

Bush said the bill thrashed out in compromise talks between Congress and the White House “reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America’s continued support and sacrifice.”

“We removed the arbitrary timetables for withdrawal and the restrictions on our military commanders that some in Congress had supported,” he said.

The budget for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will replace a previous 124-billion-dollar version vetoed by the president earlier this month because of withdrawal dates inserted by Democrats who captured Congress on an anti-war platform last year.

It is comprised of two measures, one limited to war funds for Iraq and Afghanistan worth 108 billion dollars and a second including a further 11 billion dollars in domestic spending including hurricane relief and money for agriculture and firefighting.

The compromise between Democrats and the White House contains the first congressionally-imposed political and security “benchmarks” the Iraqi government will be required to meet or risk losing economic aid.

The 18 requirements include demands for a crackdown on militias, the need to train to Iraqi troops, the launching of constitutional review processes, and ensuring the fair distribution of Iraq’s hydrocarbon riches.

Since they lack the two-thirds majority needed to block a presidential veto, Democrats admitted they had simply ceded to the political reality, after a tense test of wills with commander-in-chief Bush.

“This proposition is the best that we can achieve given the votes that we have,” said senior Democratic representative David Obey (news, bio, voting record).

In the end, Democrats appeared unwilling to enter the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, when Americans remember their war dead, risking being portrayed as unsupportive of troops braving a cauldron of fire in Iraq.

But they argue they have laid down a marker, and signaled to Bush that eventually, they will force his hand over the war.

“Weak as it is .... (the) amendment with its 18 new benchmarks does at least end the totally blank check that previous Congress’s have provided,” Obey said.

The Senate will cast just one vote on the whole package.

But in a sign of Democratic distaste over the climb-down, several senior party figures in the House were expected to join war opponents and vote against the measure — meaning it will need Republican votes to pass.

“I’m not likely to vote for something that doesn’t have a timetable or a goal of coming home,” said House speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record).

Obey said he also would not vote for the funding package, because it did not contain timelines for withdrawal and the benchmarks the Iraqi government must meet were too weak.

It also calls on Bush to report to Congress on progress of his surge strategy in July and September.

On Iran, Bush said meanwhile that the United States and its European allies would seek to toughen sanctions on Iran over its defiance of UN demands to rein in its nuclear program.

“We need to strengthen our sanction regime,” Bush said. “We will work with our European partners to develop further sanctions.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070524/ts_afp/usiraqcongress_070524154916

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