Cong. Dems, "seeking to avoid a vote on funding the Iraq war during the fall campaign season," are considering combining Pres. Bush's two pending requests "into a single bill to be voted on this spring."
House Dem aides said 4/17 that Bush's $108B request to finance military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through 9/30/08 may be combined with his $70B request to continue the war into the next POTUS' term. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA): "You vote one time and get the money out of the way." Murtha cautioned, however, that House leaders have not officially endorsed the idea.
"But votes on war spending bills inevitably generate tension" among Dems and "unhappiness among their core supporters." And "that has leaders," such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "hoping to avoid a second vote in the fall."
Meanwhile, Pelosi spokesperson Nadeam Elshami cautioned that Dems have yet to unite behind a strategy on how to tackle their nettlesome Iraq funding problem and that it's not certain the strategy for a combined funding will get the green light (Taylor, AP, 4/17).
You'll Never Need To Doubt It, I'll Make You So Sure About It
The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt," according to a "highly critical" study published 4/17 by the the Nat'l Defense Univ. -- the Pentagon's "premier military educational institute."
The report "raises fresh doubts" about Bush's projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq "just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions." The report's opening line: "Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle."
The report "carries considerable weight because" it was written by ex-senior Pentagon official Joseph Collins, and was based in part on interviews with other ex-senior defense and intel officials "who played roles in prewar preparations" (Landay/Walcott, McClatchy, 4/18).
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