[NYTr] Bush wants $50 billion more for Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Washington Post via MSNBC - Aug 29, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20485844/

Bush wants $50 billion more for Iraq

Planned request signals confidence that 
Congress won't prevail on pullout 

By Thomas E. Ricks
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to
$50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, a White House
official said yesterday, a move that appears to reflect increasing
administration confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for
a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces.

The request -- which would come on top of about $460 billion in the
fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental
bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- is expected to be
announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September
featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq. Army Gen. David H.
Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will assess the state of the
war and the effect of the new strategy the U.S. military has pursued
this year.

The request is being prepared now in the belief that Congress will be
unlikely to balk so soon after hearing the two officials argue that
there are promising developments in Iraq but that they need more time
to solidify the progress they have made, a congressional aide said.

Most of the additional funding in a revised supplemental bill would pay
for the current counteroffensive in Iraq, which has expanded the U.S.
force there by about 28,000 troops, to about 160,000. The cost of the
buildup was not included in the proposed 2008 budget because Pentagon
officials said they did not know how long the troop increase would
last. The decision to seek about $50 billion more appears to reflect
the view in the administration that the counteroffensive will last into
the spring of 2008 and will not be shortened by Congress.

‘Pretty close to a done deal’

Some consideration is being given to trimming the new request by a few
billion dollars, the White House official said. But, he added, "this is
pretty close to a done deal." Almost all the spending is relatively
noncontroversial, he added, with the vast majority of it necessary just
to keep the U.S. military operating in Iraq. The official, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to
reporters, said that the supplemental requests are likely to be "rolled
together" and considered as one package.

The revised supplemental would total about $200 billion, indicating
that the cost of the war in Iraq now exceeds $3 billion a week. The
bill also covers the far smaller costs of the war in Afghanistan. The
Pentagon said recently that the cost of the Iraq war has surpassed $330
billion, while the war in Afghanistan has cost $78 billion.

"We have said previously that after General Petraeus reports, we will
be evaluating what adjustments may need to be made to our pending
[fiscal 2008] supplemental request, which was sent up in February with
the rest of the budget," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said
last night. "I'm going to decline to speculate on this, as General
Petraeus has not testified. Nor have any decisions been made at this
stage about whether, when or what specific changes could be made."

A House Appropriations Committee aide said that an additional White
House spending request has been anticipated but that it was expected to
be far smaller, perhaps about $30 billion. "We haven't seen the
details, but we'll give it the scrutiny it deserves," said Jim Manley,
a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). "It's
long past time for giving blank checks to the administration."

No major changes expected

Despite widespread media anticipation of next month's Iraq hearings,
Pentagon insiders say they do not expect them to result in any major
changes in military strategy. The sessions are expected to occur the
week of Sept. 10, with Petraeus and Crocker appearing before a total of
four committees in the House and Senate.

"I don't see any surprises" coming out of the hearings, said an officer
on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said he expects Petraeus
and Crocker to focus on tactical security gains in and around Baghdad
in recent months and on shifts in tribal allegiances in favor of U.S.
forces, and to argue that those improvements may open a window for
greater political reconciliation in Iraq over the next six or seven
months.

In any event, this officer said, he expects the current
counteroffensive to be maintained into next April. "The surge was
designed to last for a year," he said. "I don't think they'll change
that."

In a speech yesterday to the convention of the American Legion in Reno,
Nev., Bush gave an optimistic assessment of recent events in the war,
now in its fifth year. "There are unmistakable signs that our strategy
is achieving the objectives we set out," he said. "The momentum is now
on our side."

[Staff writers Jonathan Weisman and Karen DeYoung contributed to this
report.]

© 2007 The Washington Post Company