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February 27th,
2009 - Obama Seeks $205 Bln for Iraq and Afghan Wars |
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Obama Seeks
$205 Bln for Iraq and Afghan Wars By Tabassum Zakaria & Andrea Shalal-Esa Reuters February 27, 2009 Washington - President
Barack Obama requested about $205 billion in war funding through the end of
fiscal 2010 on Thursday, as he sought to withdraw tens of thousands of troops
from Iraq and boost forces fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. Obama's first budget
proposal asked for $75.5 billion through September, which would bring total
war spending to $141.4 billion for the current fiscal year. Obama also
requested a slightly smaller $130 billion to fund the wars for fiscal year
2010, which starts on October 1. Obama asked Congress to
increase the Pentagon's regular budget to $533.7 billion next year - up 4
percent, or $20.4 billion, from its spending plan for the current year, drawn
up under the Bush administration. "In our country's
current economic circumstances, I believe that represents a strong commitment
to our security," Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the
Pentagon. U.S. military spending
accounts for roughly half the global total, according to independent experts. Obama, who took office on
January 20, made a campaign promise to bring U.S. troops home from the
unpopular Iraq war and was expected to announce his withdrawal plans in a
speech on Friday at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. But Obama has also
authorized the deployment of 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where
insurgent violence is worsening. The costs of pulling out of Iraq and
building up in Afghanistan mean the price of the wars will remain high. Total spending on the Pentagon
and the wars would reach nearly $664 billion in fiscal 2010, if the plan is
approved by Congress, up slightly from $656.3 billion in 2009. The United States currently
has 142,000 troops in Iraq and 38,000 in Afghanistan, according to the
Pentagon. Hard Choices The budget brings the
curtain down on the big growth in defence spending under the Bush
administration but still gives the Pentagon an increase at a time of economic
crisis. Gates said the Pentagon
fared better than had been feared. "We've been given a
little more space than I expected. I'm grateful for that but I still think
we're going to have to make some hard choices," he said. The administration
anticipates big savings over the next few years in a number of areas,
including defence spending. But Gates said decisions
about specific program cuts would not be made until shortly before a detailed
budget is released in April. Analysts say the F-22
fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin Corp, U.S. missile defence programs, a
big Army modernization program led by Boeing Co, and a new Navy destroyer
built by Northrop Grumman Corp and General Dynamics Corp are among the most
vulnerable to cuts. The Obama administration has
vowed to make military spending more transparent by taking predictable items
out of the "emergency" supplemental requests for war funding and
adding them to the Pentagon's regular budget. Members of Congress
complained that they had less time to scrutinize the emergency funding
requests and that those requests included items not directly related to the
wars. "It presents a clearer
picture of total U.S. defence spending," said Travis Sharp, military
analyst at the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a private think
tank. The overall defence budget,
including war funding, jumped 78 percent from $387 billion in fiscal 2000,
set before the September 11 attacks, to $687 billion in fiscal 2009, the
Centre said. The new budget includes
"placeholder estimates" of $50 billion in future years to pay for
military operations. Starting in fiscal 2010, the
administration says, the military operations budget will include only
incremental costs truly associated with the wars and not modernization
projects such as F-35 fighter jets still under development by Lockheed, which
the Bush administration had added to its war budgets. Additional reporting by
Andrew Gray; Editing by Patricia Zengerle. © Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights
reserved. External link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51Q07G20090227 |