ILSM on the $196 Billion Question

ILSM sends a link to this article:

With Congress and the White House engaged in a long-running feud over war funds, President George W. Bush criticized Democrats on Saturday for holding up money he requested for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Bush is seeking $196 billion for the wars for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Democrats who control Congress want to attach a troop pullout plan to the funding bill for the war but lack enough votes to pass the measure in the Senate.

The White House has warned that Bush would veto any bill with such conditions.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said Congress was “failing to meet its responsibilities to our troops.”

“For months, Congress has delayed action on supplemental war funding because some in Congress want to make a political statement about the war,” he said, criticizing Democrats for leaving for their Thanksgiving break without approving the war funds.

A bill passed this week by the House of Representatives would have given Bush about a quarter of the $196 billion he wants for the wars while setting a goal that all U.S. combat soldiers withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008.

Republicans stopped the measure in the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not bring another Iraq war funding bill to the House floor this year.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned that without a cash infusion, he would soon make plans to lay off civilian employees, terminate contracts and cut base operations.

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ILSM continues:

Just a couple of ideas.

“Bush said Congress was “failing to meet its responsibilities to our troops.”

Here Bush is saying: Let me waste the troops some more, but allow me to make it seem as if I care more for them than you do. If Bush cared for them he would have a political agenda in Iraq to establish a government that can take over. He does not and will not do anything aside from assuring they are there for the ever profitable long term.

This debate is about long pointless war, not who is meeting their responsibility for the best use of the “troops”.

Then Bush insists that congress following the will of the people is micromanaging the commanders, a switch and ploy since he is the commander being micromanaged. The commanders in the field only do what the commander in chief tells them to do.

As to whether he or congress know better the past six years show Bush needs micromanaging.

Second issue:

Gates comes in and threatens the longevity of the war as a jobs program, which is its sole purpose for most of its supporters.

“Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned that without a cash infusion, he would soon make plans to lay off civilian employees, terminate contracts and cut base operations.”

Reader 2slugbaits can help here being closer, but I do not think civil service jobs are dependent on supplementals, if they were they would be temporary appointments, which are just that. The temporary work ends at the end of conflict when the US is supposed to “demobilize”, a frightening term not seen much since 1947.

Gates is adding economic fear to the false fears Bush uses to extend the long war.

It is about time the congress does what we sent them there to do. Let the debate continue……

My timetable would be 15 Dec 2007.

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This post was by ILSM.