http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071007K.shtml
Official: Iraq Government Missed All Targets
By Anne Flaherty and Anne Gearan
The Associated Press
Tuesday 10 July 2007
A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government
in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other
reforms, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next,
a U.S. official said Monday.
The "pivot point" for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15,
as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush's so-called "surge" plan
is due, but instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment
is released, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because
the draft is still under discussion.
But another senior official said Bush's advisers, along with the
president, decided last week there was not enough evidence from Iraq to
justify a change now in current policy.
They had launched discussions about how to react to the erosion of
support for the president's Iraq approach among prominent Republicans, that
official said, and the debate was part of a broader search for a way out of
a U.S. combat presence in Iraq by the end of Bush's presidency.
The second official said the decision was to wait for the September
report - one originally proposed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other
administration officials, and then enshrined into law by Congress - before
deciding whether any course shift is warranted. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity so he could talk more freely about internal
deliberations.
The July report, required by law, is expected to be delivered to Capitol
Hill by Thursday or Friday, as the Senate takes up a $649 billion defense
policy bill and votes on a Democratic amendment ordering troop withdrawals
to begin in 120 days.
The second administration official said the report "will present a
picture of satisfactory progress on some benchmarks and not on others."
Also being drafted are several Republican-backed proposals that would
force a new course in Iraq, including one by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine,
and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would require U.S. troops to abandon combat
missions. Collins and Nelson say their binding amendment would order the
U.S. mission to focus on training the Iraqi security forces, targeting
al-Qaida members and protecting Iraq's borders.
"My goal is to redefine the mission and set the stage for a significant
but gradual drawdown of our troops next year," said Collins.
GOP support for the war has eroded steadily since Bush's decision in
January to send some 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. At the time, Bush
said the Iraqis agreed to meet certain benchmarks, such as enacting a law to
divide the nation's oil reserves.
This spring, Congress agreed to continue funding the war through
September but demanded that Bush certify on July 15 and again on Sept. 15
that the Iraqis were living up to their political promises or forgo U.S. aid
dollars.
The official said it is highly unlikely that Bush will withhold or
suspend aid to the Iraqis based on the report.
A draft version of the administration's progress report circulated among
various government agencies in Washington on Monday.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Monday tried to lower
expectations on the report, contending that all of the additional troops had
just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress by
now.
"You are not going to expect all the benchmarks to be met at the
beginning of something," Snow said. "I'm not sure everyone's going to get an
`A' on the first report."
In recent weeks, the White House has tried to shore up eroding GOP
support for the war.
Collins and five other GOP senators - Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Judd
Gregg of New Hampshire, Robert Bennett of Utah, John Sununu of New Hampshire
and Pete Domenici of New Mexico - support separate legislation calling on
Bush to adopt as U.S. policy recommendations by the Iraq Study Group, which
identified a potential redeployment date of spring 2008.
Other prominent Republican senators, including Richard Lugar of Indiana,
George Voinovich of Ohio, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of
Maine, also say the U.S. should begin redeployments.
Several GOP stalwarts, including Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska,
Christopher Bond of Missouri, Jon Kyl of Arizona and James Inhofe of
Oklahoma, said they still support Bush's Iraq strategy.
Kyl said he would try to focus this week's debate on preserving vital
anti-terrorism programs, including the detention of terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The defense bill is on track to expand the legal
rights of those held at the military prison, and many Democrats want to
propose legislation that would shut the facility.
"If Democrats use the defense authorization bill to pander to the far
left at the expense of our national security, they should expect serious
opposition from Republicans," Kyl said.
As the Senate debate began, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
arranged to run television commercials in four states, beginning Tuesday, to
pressure Republicans on the war.
The ads are to run in Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire,
according to knowledgeable officials, but the DSCC so far has committed to
spending a relatively small amount of money, less than $100,000 in all.
Barring a change in plans that means the ads would not be seen widely in any
of the four states.
The targets include Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Collins of Maine,
Sununu of New Hampshire and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky. All face re-election next year.
The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there
and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, with the overall tally for Iraq
alone nearing a half-trillion dollars, according to the nonpartisan
Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to
lawmakers.
The figures call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase
in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar
province would cost $5.6 billion through the end of September.
--------
Associated Press reporters Pauline Jelinek, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Lee
and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.
***
Report: Wars Costing $12 Billion a Month
By Andrew Taylor
The Associated Press
Monday 09 July 2007
Washington - The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of
war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq
alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.
All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money
since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in
Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion.
The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service,
which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.
For the 2007 budget year, CRS says, the $166 billion appropriated to the
Pentagon represents a 40 percent increase over 2006.
The Vietnam War, after accounting for inflation, cost taxpayers $650
billion, according to separate CRS estimates.
The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and
almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher
than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $10 billion a month for both
operations. Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion.
Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and
replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat.
But the estimates call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the
increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad
and Anbar province would cost only $5.6 billion through the end of
September.
If Congress approves President Bush's pending request for another $147
billion for the budget year starting Oct. 1, the total bill for the war on
terror since Sept. 11 would reach more than three-fourths of a trillion
dollars, with appropriations for Iraq reaching $567 billion.
Also, if the increase in war tempo continues beyond September, the
Pentagon's request "would presumably be inadequate," CRS said.
The latest estimates come as support for the war in Iraq among Bush's
GOP allies in Congress is beginning to erode. Senior Republicans such as
Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Richard Lugar of Indiana have called for a
shift in strategy in Iraq and a battle over funding the war will resume in
September, when Democrats in Congress begin work on a funding bill for the
war.
Congress approved $99 billion in war funding in May after a protracted
battle and a Bush veto of an earlier measure over Democrats' attempt to set
a timeline for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
The report faults the Pentagon for using the Iraq war as a pretext for
boosting the Pentagon's non-war budget by costs such as procurement,
increasing the size of the military and procurement of replacement aircraft
as war-related items.
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