The Hindu : International : Bush seeks $80 billion more for operations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

International

International

Bush seeks $80 billion more for operations

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 25. In a move that will trigger a heated debate in Congress generally and elsewhere in the country, the Bush administration will be asking $ 80 billion more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, over and above the $ 25 billions already approved in emergency spending for the current fiscal year.

Factoring in the new request would mean that this administration will have funded for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan $105 billion for 2005 alone which, it is being pointed out, is as big as the budget for the State of California and about 13 times more than the entire allocation set apart for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The formal request for the additional $ 80 billion will be submitted to Congress when the President, George W. Bush, puts up his 2006 budget on February 7. The original impression was that the administration will go to Congress for a supplementary demand of $50 billions. But this fell by the wayside as the militancy in Iraq has intensified.

"Playing down the cost"

Democrats have long accused the Republican administration of deliberately playing down the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and have said the White House has excluded Iraq-related costs from the budget in an effort to keep the deficits low.

It is being pointed out that apart from the $25 billion in emergency funding that has been approved, Congress has so far approved $120 billion for Iraq and $60 billion for Afghanistan.

Members of Congress and critics of the administration have been constantly pointing out to what was dished out by senior officials prior to the invasion of Iraq as it pertained to costs — that it would be an "affordable" endeavour, or that Iraq can finance its own reconstruction as Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defence put it.

The additional funding request is coming at a time when the United States army has made it known that it plans to keep 120,000 American soldiers in Iraq for the next two years to train and fight along with Iraqi soldiers; but the obvious feeling is that the Pentagon will come back to Congress later this year if the militancy escalates.

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