Just a reminder, THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ. If you have children this will hurt worse than if you don't. It gets worse as you scroll down. It may take a while to load.

Look how Bush is taking care of your troops, Nickle-and-Diming the Troops. Here are a few of the things you $80 billion will go for:

Until now, the White House had not been expected to reveal details of the war package until after the budget's release.

The decision to release details of the $80 billion war budget requestion comes comes after congressional officials argued to the administration that withholding the war costs from Bush's budget would open the budget to criticism that it was an unrealistic document. Last year, the spending plan omitted war expenditures and received just that critique.

Adding additional pressure, the Congressional Budget Office planned to release a semi-annual report on the budget Tuesday that was expected to include a projection of war costs. Last September, the nonpartisan budget office projected the 10-year costs of the wars at $1.4 trillion at current levels of operations, and $1 trillion if the wars were gradually phased down.

Aides said about three-fourths of the $80 billion was expected to be for the Army, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting in Iraq. It also was expected to include money for building a U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has been estimated to cost $1.5 billion.

One aide said the request will also include funds to help the new Afghan government combat drug-trafficking. It might also have money to help two new leaders the U.S. hopes will be allies, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko.

I just wanted to post this excerpt from the WP article I posted yesterday:

The Strategic Support Branch was created to provide Rumsfeld with independent tools for the "full spectrum of humint operations," according to an internal account of its origin and mission. Human intelligence operations, a term used in counterpoint to technical means such as satellite photography, range from interrogation of prisoners and scouting of targets in wartime to the peacetime recruitment of foreign spies. A recent Pentagon memo states that recruited agents may include "notorious figures" whose links to the U.S. government would be embarrassing if disclosed.

Notorius figures? Hmm? Saddam, Osama, Zarqawi?


- posted by Mom/Dad @ 1:48 PM