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| Afghanistan | |||
| US House approves money for Afghan troop surge | |||
| 2010-07-03 | |||
| The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved funds to pay for the Afghan troop surge amid criticism of the unpopular war by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. The House-approved bill includes nearly $4 billion in economic aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The war funds are in addition to the $130 billion Congress has already approved for Afghanistan and Iraq this year. The House's Democratic leaders, who had procrastinated for weeks over the bill, did not act in time to get the $33 billion to the troops by July 4 as the Pentagon had requested. An amendment demanding an exit timetable from Afghanistan failed, but got 162 votes, the biggest anti-war vote in the House on Afghanistan to date. All but nine of the supporters were Democrats, and included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pentagon chief Robert Gates said recently the money for 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan should be approved by July 4 to avoid the Pentagon having to juggle accounts and possibly lay off civilians while continuing war operations. Still it seemed a wonder the new money for the unpopular war got through the lower house at all, after long arguments among Democratic lawmakers over whether and how to do it. They set up a complicated series of votes in which the non-military spending passed 239-182, while the part containing the war funding passed 215-210. "I do not believe this war is anything but a fool's errand. If I had my way, I would never bring this to the floor," said Representative David Obey. "Why are we continuing to send our troops into a Mission Impossible?" asked Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Democrat during the discussion. While, Representative Louise Slaughter complained that the US has already spent too much on the Afghan war -- some $345 billion -- and needed to pay attention to its own economic problems.
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| Posted by:Fred |