IRAQ
The Most Expensive Year of the War
Today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will testify before the Senate
Appropriations Committee to request an
additional $50 billion from Congress to fund the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan next year, on
top of $141.7 billion that has already been appropriated. The
announcement comes just two weeks after Gen. David Petraeus testified
before Congress and argued for the continuation
of the "surge" well into 2008. "The new spending request is likely
to push the cumulative cost of the
war in Iraq alone through 2008 past the $600-billion mark -- more than
the Korean War and nearly
as much as the Vietnam War."Â Â If
the Defense Authorization Bill is approved with President Bush's budget
request, "2008
will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war." "After nearly
five years of this war, more than 3,800 deaths, over 27,000 casualties,
and no
end in sight, we must change course. This war, this draining,
desultory, dreadful occupation of Iraq must end," stated Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) on Monday.
PAYING FOR MORE BLOOD: In
February, President
Bush requested $141.7 billion "to sustain combat operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan into
next year" for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1. That request,
however, "did not allow financing for a surge in
troops [in Iraq] that would last
through mid-summer 2008." Today, Gates will request an additional
$50 billion, bringing "the amount the administration is seeking to
finance the war effort through 2008 to almost
$200 billion." "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." Nearly
a quarter of the new money "would go to build additional mine-resistant, ambush-protected
vehicles, or MRAPs." The
administration's request this year dwarfs that of previous years. "In
2004, the two conflicts [in Iraq and Afghanistan] together cost $94
billion;
in 2005, they cost $108 billion; in 2006, $122 billion." "Everybody
predicts declines, but they haven't occurred, and 2008 will be higher
than 2007," states analyst Winslow T. Wheeler. "[T]hus far it has
continued to get bloodier and more expensive."Â Even if the Bush
administration reduces the size of the force in Iraq in 2008, "analysts
expect the 2009 budget to remain between $170 billion and $200 billion."
FUNDING AN 'OPEN-ENDED COMMITMENT':Â Last weekend, Sen.
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said she would support cutting
off funding to force a change in war policy, announcing her
opposition to the President's $50 billion request. "I will vote
against funding again in the absence of any change in policy," she
said. "I
don't believe we should continue to vote for funding that has an
open-ended commitment." Byrd "said that he plans to attach 'strings'
to the supplemental war funding bill in an effort to bring troops home
more quickly." "In the House, antiwar lawmakers have gathered 80
signatures on a letter they plan to send to Bush expressing their opposition
to 'appropriating any additional funds for U.S. military
operations in Iraq other than a time-bound, safe redeployment.'" "If
one is unhappy with our progress in Iraq after four years of war, voting to de-fund
the war makes sense," said Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).
THE 'DANGEROUS' IRAN AMENDMENT: Today,
the Senate will debate an amendment to the appropriations bill
introduced by Sens. Jo
Lieberman (I-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), which seeks to escalate the
possibility of armed conflict with Iran. The amendment states that the U.S. should support "the
prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national
power in Iraq," including "military
instruments" against alleged Iranian agents in Iraq. Sen. Jim
Webb (D-VA) called the amendment "Dick
Cheney's fondest pipe dream,"
as "it could be read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional
validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious
debate." "Iran is a threat...but it needs to be dealt
with strategically and diplomatically," said Sen. Chuck Hagel
(R-NE). Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) called the amendment's
language "dangerous" and called it an "effort to put
us on the record for the use of military force in Iran."
THE PARTITION AMENDMENT: The
Senate will also consider
an amendment proposed by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) calling for the partitioning of
Iraq into at least three sectarian
enclaves. "You
make federalism work for the Iraqis," Biden claimed. But 98
percent of Iraqis oppose the partitioning of their country on
sectarian lines. The plan "would
alienate huge sections of the Iraqi population.
It would be a gross provocation to most of Iraq's neighbors," who view
a divided Iraq as a "brittle state structure," notes Iraq expert
Reidar
Visser. Biden's proposal echoes Brookings analyst Michael
O'Hanlon's "soft-partition"
plan, which envisions a long-term occupation of Iraq. Analyst Anthony
Cordesman said of the partition plan, "[It is] brutal. It is
repressive. It kills people.
It injures them. It drives them out of their homes, and it drives them
out of their country. To talk about this as if it was something that is
gentle or nonviolent is simply dishonest."Â
MEDIA
-- O'REILLY SURPRISED RESTAURANT WAS NICE, 'EVEN THOUGH IT'SÂ RUN
BY
BLACKS': Fox News' Bill O'Reilly recently dined with the
Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia's, a
famous African-American-owned restaurant in Harlem. Afterwards, on his
radio show, O'Reilly reported that he "had a great time, and
all
the people up there are tremendously respectful," adding, "I couldn't
get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's
restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was
exactly the same, even
though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship."Â
O'Reilly added, "there wasn't any
kind of craziness at all," and noted that "there wasn't one person in
Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea!'" The remarks
have stirred controversy, with some television anchors leaping to defend O'Reilly's comments. CNN anchor Rick Sanchez downplayed the
severity of O'Reilly’s remarks: "But just how big
a deal is this? �
What's wrong with a white guy making social commentary about
other
people's race, which is what he seems to be doing here?"
Station WABC interviewed Sylvia's patrons about
O'Reilly’s remarks. Said one customer: "I'm concerned
that people are still in that type of mindset." Last night,
O'Reilly attacked
CNN for even discussing his remarks.
CIVIL RIGHTS -- SENATE RULES COMMITTEE
TO VOTE ON BUSH'S CONTROVERSIAL FEC NOMINEE TODAY: Today, the
Senate Rules Committee will "consider
the nomination" of four nominees to the Federal Election
Commission, including former Bush Justice Department official Hans von
Spakovsky, "who former employees say was key to the
politicization of voting rights section" of the Department.
President Bush first placed Von Spakovsky on the Commission in January
2006 with a recess appointment, but his confirmation was derailed in
June after civil rights groups and former career attorneys at the
Department vocally opposed
his nomination due to his record in the voting rights division.
Earlier this year, Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, sent a letter to senators accusing "von
Spakovsky of working systematically to block poor and minority
voters from the polls under policies such as a Georgia identification
law 'akin
to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.'" Committee Chairwoman Dianne
Feinstein (D-CA) is said to "have
serious concerns about Von Spakovsky" and "wants a vote on each
nominee separately" instead of "considering all four nominees,
Democratic and Republican, in one vote." For more on Spakovsky, click HERE.
CONGRESS -- WAXMAN URGES STATE DEPT. TO COOPERATE WITH INVESTIGATION
INTO CORRUPTION IN IRAQ: Yesterday, the House Oversight
Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) accused Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice of "interfering"
with the committee's investigation into corruption in Iraq.
State Department officials refused to allow any potentially negative
comments about the Maliki government in Iraq to be made public. "The scope
of the prohibition is breathtaking,"
Waxman wrote, alleging that State seems to view criticism of the
government as "a national security secret." "[I]t means that unless the
Committee agrees to keep the
information secret from the public, the Committee cannot obtain
information from officials...about whether there is corruption within
the Iraqi ministries." Waxman also
pressed Rice about his committee's investigation into Blackwater USA, a
private security firm that was allegedly involved in a shooting
incident that left 11 Iraqis dead. The State Department has
instructed Blackwater not to provide
the Committee with necessary information, and Rice has refused to
testify about the incident. Congress has a "constitutional
prerogative" to look into the issues, Waxman wrote, and Rice is "wrong to interfere with the Committee's inquiry."
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U.S. military officials are pressing the State Department to "assert
more control over" Blackwater USA, "which operates under the
department's authority." "This is a nightmare," said a senior
military official of the recent incident involving Blackwater. "This is going to hurt us badly. It
may be worse than Abu Ghraib."
While expressing his support for international human rights yesterday at the U.N., "Bush didn't mention the U.S. prisons in
Afghanistan or at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. practice of
holding detainees for years without legal charges or access to lawyers,
or the CIA's 'rendition' kidnappings of suspects abroad, all issues of
concern to human rights activists around the world."
Negotiators from the United Auto Workers union and General Motors reached
a tentative agreement on a groundbreaking deal early Wednesday to end
a two-day old strike by 73,000 workers. The agreement "includes a
historic restructuring of GM's obligations for UAW
retiree health care."
"Sunni Arab extremists have begun a systematic campaign to
assassinate police chiefs, police officers, other Interior Ministry officials and
tribal leaders throughout Iraq, staging at least 10 attacks in 48
hours." Iraqi officials said that the attacks might well have been
intended to blunt
the administration's message that "surge" has succeeded in
establishing security.
More than 2,000
people in Iraq are suffering from cholera, which is
spreading across the country, the World Health Organization said. The
spread of the disease has been accelerated by chlorine restrictions imposed
on Iraq due to security concerns.
"Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to add an expanded hate-crimes
ban to the defense
authorization,
giving them more time to court GOP votes for a new Iraq withdrawal plan
but dimming the must-pass bill's chances for passage this week."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said he will
"press the government for the release of a black teenager held in
the 'Jena 6' case that spurred one of the biggest civil-rights
demonstrations in years." "Our first responsibility is to get young
Mychal Bell out of prison," he said.
And finally: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has
released an ad showcasing the "disturbing relationship between agribusiness contributions" and pork-barrel funding projects.
In the ad, a suited man walks into a men's room with a briefcase,
begins tapping his foot, and is handed cash from underneath a
neighboring stall. "The next stall occupant? A
giant pig, squealing." Watch it here.
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Defying a veto threat, the House voted 265-159 last
night to pass the popular
and successful Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization
Act.
NEW
YORK: Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) threatens to sue federal government
for no longer covering the cost of chemotherapy for undocumented
immigrants with cancer.
VIRGINIA:
State says it may "build a 1,000-bed detention center where illegal
immigrants arrested for certain crimes could be held until federal
officials deport them."
CIVIL
RIGHTS: Supreme Court agrees "to decide whether states
can require voters to show government-issued photo identification
before they cast a ballot."
THINK
PROGRESS: Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA): the hawkish Kyl-Lieberman amendment
on Iran is Vice President "Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream."
FOREIGN POLICY
PASSPORT: For his United Nations speech, the White House prepared a
"phonetic guide" for President Bush.
DEMOCRACY
ARSENAL: Questions raised by the contradiction between Gen. David
Petraeus' method of counting "ethno sectarian violence" and the
Pentagon's.
HORSE'S
MOUTH: Pro-war senators are refusing to be interviewed about Iraq
on MSNBC.
"Columbia and Lee Bollinger are hypocritical beyond belief." Inviting
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "revolting."
-- Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly, 9/24/07
VERSUS
"We actually did invite him" to appear on The Factor.
-- O'Reilly, 9/24/07
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