The Iraqi Government better get the lead out of their asses. I figure they have a 3 month window and if they don’t get it done, it will be the beginning of the end.
The Iraq government is mostly Shiite. They don’t trust the Sunnis. Can’t really blame them.
They don’t trust America. Can’t really blame them.
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