Bush to ask Congress for some 63 billion dollars to pay for a longer-than-expected Iraq war

WASHINGTON, March 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the U.S.-led invasion forces are meeting stiffer-than-expected Iraqi resistance, the Bush administration readies the American public for a protracted conflict and extended and bloody fight in Iraq.

Bush will ask Congress for about 63 billion dollars to pay for the Iraq war and other extra security costs, a Democratic senator said Monday, March 25.

Senator Robert Byrd made the estimate after congressional leaders met the president to discuss a supplemental budget for the war.

He said the size of the total supplemental budget request was likely to reach 75 billion dollars, including 63 billion to pay for the war, eight billion for Iraq's post-war reconstruction and four billion dollars for boosting homeland security in the United States.

A senior administration official, briefing reporters, was quoted by Washington Post as saying Bush's request is based on a conclusion in recent days that the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will not fold quickly.

Earlier, a senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon will ask Congress to approve 62.6 billion dollars in funding to cover the cost of a short war against Iraq, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"We assume a relative short, highly intense period of conflict," said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon's request for emergency supplemental funding would provide 30.3 billion dollars for "coercive diplomacy," 13.1 billion dollars for the "major conflict phase," 12 billion dollars for the "transitional and stability phase," and 7.2 billion dollars for "reconstitution."

The 7.2 billion dollars for international relief and reconstruction includes $3.5 billion for Iraq ($2.5 billion in a relief fund and much of the rest for oil field repair) and $5 billion in assistance to nations that have been helpful in the Iraq war or in fighting terrorism, including Jordan, Israel, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Colombia and some Eastern European countries, reported The Washington Post.

Turkey will get $1 billion of the funds; the country had been offered a $6 billion aid package if it allowed use of its bases but its parliament rejected the offer, it added.

Bush met with congressional leaders late Monday to lobby for money for the war on Iraq.

The Pentagon's estimates of the cost of the war are based on the assumption that it will last no longer than 30 days.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said Friday "the war could cost anywhere from 100, perhaps to 200 billion dollars, but there's not a dollar in the budget right now for us as we consider the cost of the war or anything else."

Reports of U.S. casualties and prisoners of war even jolted Wall Street as the Dow Jones industrial average Tuesday fell 3.6 percent in its worst day of the year, and returned the average to a loss for the year after last week's rally.

Bush also was due to meet with Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan Monday at the White House, his spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Greenspan met Monday morning with members of Bush's economic team, who along with Bush presented broad outlines of their plan for financing the war in Iraq and Iraqi reconstruction to lawmakers later in the day.

Tuesday, Bush was due to visit the Pentagon to officially unveil these figures which he will present to Congress, which is led by a majority from his Republican Party.

The budget boost also will include bilateral aid for several Gulf nations and Israel.

In comparison, the Gulf War from January-February 1991 cost the equivalent of almost 80 billion of today's dollars, much of which was funded by the nations whose forces are fighting together at the time.

Now U.S. and British troops are waging the war together with help from Australia and several small nations, while Russia, China, France and Germany are opposed.

"Significant" Casualties

After setbacks in Iraq and President Bush's warnings that progress could be more difficult than anticipated, Americans have begun to revise their expectations.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 54 percent of the country believes the United States and its allies will sustain "significant" casualties in the war, up from 37 percent on Thursday, March 20.

Nearly half, 45 percent, expect the war to last months rather than days or weeks, up from 37 percent on Thursday.

The administration steadfastly refused to release estimates of the war cost while Congress was considering a budget plan that included a $726 billion tax cut Bush proposed. Both houses of Congress passed a 2004 budget outline last week without the figures, although the Senate took out $100 billion of the tax cut to pay for the war.

The senior official, who briefed reporters on condition that his name not be used, said the delay in the war-cost estimate was dictated by military considerations.

"We found out finally that Saddam was not going to simply go peacefully and do what the world community has been asking him to do for 12 years," the official said. "That would have led to a very different package. Secondly, we found that there would not be an immediate surrender of the Iraq regime, that there would be some resistance."

Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the administration is not giving a full accounting of the war's costs in its emergency request.

"I know people think this will pay for the war," he said. "It most definitely will not. This is, in my view, the first installment."

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog organization, contended Monday that the costs of war with Iraq would exceed $110 billion in 2003, assuming the war ends before May, and $550 billion over 10 years. The group calculated that the military has already spent $1 billion on cruise missiles, $380 million on chemical protective suits and more than $100 million on air combat missions.