Bush wants an additional $87 BILLION dollars!!!

[Honeykiss1974]

Did anyone else listen to his speech last night?

I also knew Bush was a lil' stupid, but $87 BILLION stupid?
OMGoodness, if there is any lesson to learn from this man's presidency, it is this...PLEASE get out and vote!!!!




Posted on Mon, Sep. 08, 2003

Bush: War 'will take time'
In a televised address to the nation, the president says he will do and spend what is necessary to succeed in Iraq.
BY RON HUTCHESON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Sunday issued an international call for help in Iraq and asked Congress for an additional $87 billion to help pay for U.S. operations there and in Afghanistan.

In a tacit acknowledgment that the war in Iraq is not going as planned, Bush urged Americans to prepare for a long and costly effort to transform the former dictatorship into a democracy. He offered no timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

"This will take time, and require sacrifice," Bush said in an evening address to the nation from the White House. "Yet we will do whatever is necessary, we will spend what is necessary to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror." [i] WHAT THE HAYLE?!??! )

He cast the conflict in Iraq as a pivotal contest between civilization and terrorism that will determine the future of the entire Middle East.

"The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror," he said. "Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated."

Speaking four days before the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush said America's outlook on the rest of the world has fundamentally changed.

"For America, there will be no going back to the era before Sept. 11, 2001 -- to false comfort in a dangerous world," he said. "We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness."

Bush did not address the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or criticism that he and his advisers drastically underestimated the difficulty of stabilizing the country. The $87 billion price tag, which comes on top of the $79 billion (that totals $166 BILLION!) that Congress approved last spring, was higher than previous estimates.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted that the costs in Iraq would swell to at least $100 billion next year. (add that to the previous total - $266 BILLION! )

"Every assumption the administration made about what would happen after the war was dead wrong," Biden said prior to Bush's address.

Bush acknowledged that some traditional U.S. allies are reluctant to commit troops and financial help for the rebuilding effort after they opposed the U.S.-led war. The president's appeal for international assistance was a marked shift from his earlier insistence that the United States and its willing allies could deal with Iraq without an endorsement from the United Nations.

"I recognize that not all of our friends agreed with our decision" to go to war, Bush said. "Yet we cannot let past difficulties interfere with present duties."

The president said U.S. commanders are satisfied that the 130,000 U.S. personnel now in Iraq are enough but said they seek more foreign troops.

Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed hope Sunday that other countries would send as many as 15,000 troops.

Bush vowed that U.S. forces would stay until the job is done, even in the face of terrorist attacks.

"The terrorists have a strategic goal," he said. "They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done. They want to shake the will of the civilized world."

Bush's speech was his first prime-time address on Iraq since his May 1 announcement that major combat was over. Polls indicate that public opinion about the war has deteriorated steadily since then, along with Bush's approval ratings.

Although most Americans continue to say they approve of Bush's performance as president, the aura of invincibility that surrounded him in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has faded amid concerns about the economy and developments in Iraq. About half of Americans think that the war is going badly.

Democrats have become increasingly vocal in criticizing Bush's handling of Iraq. Republicans are starting to join them.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on CNN that before the war, Bush and his advisers left the impression that Iraqi citizens would throw bouquets at U.S. troops, "but they've been throwing bombs instead."