US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has asked Congress for nearly US$190 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, the biggest funding request yet in the six-year-old "war on terror."
Heckled by anti-war protesters, Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that the funding was needed to cover the cost of keeping extra troops in Iraq through July and to provide better armored vehicles to them.
The latest request marks a sharp increase over the US$141.7 billion that the administration requested for next year at the start of the surge in February.
"The second adjustment to be submitted by the president seeks approximately 42 billion, bringing the total FY [fiscal year] '08 DOD [Department of Defense] request to nearly 190 billion," Gates said.
Senator Diane Feinstein, a Democrat, noted the sharp rise in war costs, ticking off yearly increases in war spending from US$34 billion in 2002 to US$171 billion this year.
"If you go back and look at the supplementals it has been a constant progression upwards," she said.
Gates said US$6 billion of the additional funding would go to maintain additional US "surge" forces in Iraq through mid-July.
Gates said the new funding request "takes into account the president's announced intention to redeploy five Army combat brigade combat teams by next summer."
Defense officials said the war funding being sought now does not anticipate force reductions beyond July even though Gates has expressed hopes they can be drawn down to 10 brigades by the end of the year, or about 100,000 troops.
The new funding request includes US$11 billion to field 7,000 mine resistant armored vehicles known as MRAPs on top of 8,000 that already have been funded or requested, Gates said. He has made MRAPs the top procurement priority since learning that not a single US troop has been killed by a roadside bomb in one.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese