Bush Wants $82B More for Iraq, Afghan Costs

AP ^ | February 14, 2005 | AP

[CitizenHelper]

WASHINGTON - President Bush was poised to officially ask Congress Monday for an estimated $82 billion to cover the costs of continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a myriad of other internationally related expenses, including training Iraqi security forces and aiding victims of the tsunami.

The White House was to send the supplemental budget request to Capitol Hill late Monday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

Included in the request is $74.9 billion for the Defense Department, including $5 billion for transforming Army divisions and brigades and $5.7 billion for training and equipping Iraqi military and police, according to a federal official familiar with the supplemental.

The remaining money in the supplemental request includes $950 million to help areas affected by the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean; $350 million to aid the Palestinians; $400 million to reward nations that have taken political and economic risks to join U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan; money to help build a U.S. embassy in Baghdad; reconstruction funds for Afghanistan; and money for the Darfur region of western Sudan where a 2-year-old civil conflict has left tens of thousands off people killed and more than 2 million displaced.

In a written statement on this issue earlier, President Bush had said the special appropriation would support U.S. troops and help the United States "stand with the Iraqi people and against the terrorists trying desperately to block democracy and the advance of human rights."

The Army wants to use the $5 billion to convert 33 brigades and regiments — about 30 of which are organized into 10 divisions — into a force of 43 to 48 brigades that would operate more independently.

[peacebaby]

Iraq gives free oil to US military....

when will Iraq have control over their oil and their money which Saddam supposedly had stashed away?

[JohnnyZ]

Those of us who think this is 'money flushed down a rat hole' , should be excused. handed over to al Qaeda as training fodder?

If you don't like the decisions of your elected representative government, tough ****, pay your taxes like everybody else or get the hell out of my country.

[JohnnyZ]

But the deficits are due to the Clinton recession, the attacks of 9/11 and the War on Terror. massive entitlement spending.

Just because we're spending tons of money on stuff we don't really need (Medicare Medicaid etc) doesn't mean we should stop spending on what we DO need (defense).

[zoobee]

And NOTHING for our border patrols right?

[econ_grad]

...but a bit naive and uninformed about history, and the reality of terrorism.

Thanks for patronizing me. I have lived in three continents, and have known people from all over first hand. It is you who lacks any basis in reality. Let's take your case of stabilizing Europe. You will agree that we share culturally and geneologically with Europe than any other parts of the world. So, what happened after we put Europe on American welfare? Within two generations we have created the most virulently anti-American folks in the world in the country that benefited most from US welfare. And you think that if we only put more countries on US dole, with whom we share nothing culturally, somehow that will stabilize them and make them our friends? Think again. Step out of Ohio and live there for a little while and you will find out soon what these people respond to. If we are rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, you know what this implicitly means to them? It means we have done a violent crime in these nations and that is why we are rebuilding them. That is the mentality in that part of the world. Only if we pillaged and plundered would they have gotten the message that THEY have done something wrong. If you don't trust me, talk to someone who has lived there and ever had to negotiate with these people. Then you can come back and call me naive.

[Hank Rearden]

Just because we're spending tons of money on stuff we don't really need (Medicare Medicaid etc) doesn't mean we should stop spending on what we DO need (defense).

True. But we need to stop wasting so much money on things we don't need, regardless of the level of necessary defense spending.

Bush doesn't care about any of this - he's a profligate Big Government spending addict, obviously.

[ShadowDancer]

That was very Stepford wifish.

[VictoryGal]

When does it stop? From the stupid underreported cost of the prescription drug thing to this, my fiscally conservative heart keeps getting crushed.

Does anyone else think it wouldv'e been more cost-and-lives-effective to give Saddam and his family the original $87B to exile to Argentina or something? Then Iraq coulda kept its infrastructure and everything, and no American lives lost.

I bet we coulda got him to take it. "Take the payoff, or get bombed into oblivion." With this resolute a president, it would resonate.

SIGH. I guess we need to keep on giving since our brave kids are out there still. I don't begrudge THEM anything. I just wish this war had been prosecuted more intelligently.

[xzins]

VG, you must be in a down mood today.

This president has done only what any insightful brave man would have done. He has taken the fight to the enemy, and he is winning.

We have not even reached 2% of GDP in war spending, and in WWII we reached 26%.

This war has been prosecuted near perfectly, imho, in a hostile environment amidst a traitorous, 5th column american media.

The only thing: My son just returned from Iraq last Friday. He said that he and his friends have one request for the next war....they're tired of this "desert" thing and wonder if we can't take over the Bahamas next time.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Amen!

[ohioWfan]

So what does that make you? Freddie Kruger?

(Stupid comment, Shadow. You have to be a better person than you seem online. You can't be as idiotic as you make yourself look with mindless insults like that, can you? Really?? I mean, if you're going to insult me because I love this country, you can at least TRY to be clever).

[Major_Risktaker]

Between the 87 billion last year and 82 billion this year, we could have bought all of Iraq and Afghanistan.

___________________

Iraq's population 25,374,691 (July 2004 est.)

At $169 Billion dollars we could have given every man, women and child ballpark $6.5 million dollars each and bought the country.

A family of 4 would receive $24 million dollars.

A strange way of look at the cash but I think they would have sold out to live anywhere else in the world as millionaire.

____________________

$12 Million for this little jewel and
the local inhabitance got wiped out!

"Let the Land rejoice, for you have bought Louisiana for a Song."
--Gen. Horatio Gates to President Thomas Jefferson, July 18, 1803 .

Good deal: Louisiana Territory--828,000 square miles

_______________

The Deal: $200 Billion + and what do you get for you money?

Iraq 271,583 square miles slightly more than twice the size of Idaho

CIA World OIL

If the US didn't import any oil and used are reserves only we would have maybe 9 years of oil at current consumption.

[ohioWfan]

What makes you think I've never lived outside of Ohio? Kind of patronizing, I'd say.....

Your comments make you seem naive, and I don't agree with much of what you've said........probably because I don't share your caustic worldview.

I'd rather be safe because there are fledgling democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq than be in greater danger because we either allowed the terrorists to fester inside those countries and grow stronger.

If you think it's 'naive' to fight and destroy terrorism, and then stabilize the countries and help them build themselves up, then I am naive.........and so are countless others........including our military.

btw, I'm not worried about being killed by the Germans flying planes into our buildings are you? Your concern about the 'virulent' anti-Americanism in western Europe doesn't hold water in light of what was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan before we liberated them. Your argument is illogical, econ. Try again.

[ohioWfan]

What Ernest?? You don't think I'm a 'Stepford Wife' because I agree with U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and support the U.S. military?

What's wrong with you, anyway? ;o)

(There are some really odd people around here, you know?)

[ohioWfan]

Where did you get those figures? They are diametrically opposed to the figures I just heard last week.

[ohioWfan]

Troll? CNN afficionado?? NY Times subscriber??

The oil was NEVER supposed to pay for this 'venture'......except possibly in the twisted minds of the leftist media and their revisionist history.

(Welcome to FR).

[econ_grad]

I have never said you have never lived outside OH. You may have lived in Timbukto, but your mindset is very naive. My worldview isn't caustic, it is realistic. You don't have to believe what I am saying. Just ask anyone else who has lived there. Why do you think the Arab world is full of tyrants? The only Islamic country that has been able to reform is Turkey, and that is after it was humiliated.

Germans don't have to fly planes into our buildings, they will simply let those terrorists operate from their countries. The terrorists couldn't have picked a better spot to operate from. Their anti-Americanism blends in pretty well with the rest of Germany. You know Al Queda is not your friend. But, the Germans and the French are far worse because they pretend to be our friend.

You think you will be safe with democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq? Oh my. Thanks for the laugh.

[econ_grad]

The only reason I subscribed to the war because I thought we would get some cheap oil. According to the CIA, Iraq has 114 billion barrels in proved reserves. At $40/barrel, that is over 4 trillion bucks. Why do they need our money? Will they at least pay us back at some point?

[ohioWfan]

But, the Germans and the French are far worse because they pretend to be our friend.

Far worse?? I think not. They're not fooling half the nation, and they're not fooling this administration. You think Condi Rice thinks Chirac and Schroeder are our friends?? LOL!

But to say they are more dangerous than terrorists because they are not our friends, is a giant stretch, IMO. (And what about Japan..........interesting that you haven't mentioned them in your argument).

As to being safe with Iraq and Afghanistan's being democracies..........I should have said safer (that's what I meant). And we are.

And if you think we're not, then I'm the one laughing. You may fancy yourself more cosmopolitan and brighter than the rest of us (you did call me a fool, you know), but once again, your ideology has gotten in the way of your logic. We ARE safer because these countries have been liberated.