US President Barack Obama formally asked lawmakers on Thursday for another US$83.4 billion to pay for the immediate needs of his revamped strategy for Afghanistan and for the war in Iraq.
In a letter to his top Democratic ally in the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama pleaded for swift passage of the emergency spending measure, citing the worsening situation in Afghanistan.
“We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” he said. “With that reality as my focus, today I send to the Congress a supplemental appropriations request totaling US$83.4 billion that will fund our ongoing military, dsiplomatic and intelligence operations.”
PHOTO: AFP
The package includes items not related to the two conflicts, including US$350 million for security and counter-narcotics work along the US-Mexico border and US$89.5 million for efforts to secure Russian nuclear materials and pursue disablement and dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear work.
But “nearly 95 percent of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future — and work to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Obama said.
The president’s Republican foes were expected to join his Democratic allies in approving the request, despite growing unease among some on his party’s left flank about the escalation in Afghanistan and the pace and scope of the military draw-down from Iraq.
The request includes US$75.85 billion for military and intelligence operations in the two wars, and another US$7.1 billion for international aid — including US$400 million to help Pakistan battle Islamist extremists.
It also includes US$800 million to support the Palestinian Authority and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, and US$200 million in aid to Georgia.
Another US$800 million would go to UN peacekeeping operations, fund an expanded mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, and a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic.
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