I think it is time for a little timeline since in my last post that touched on this issue some people seem not to be aware of what has really happened:
80 DAYS AGO:
President Bush Sends War Funding Bill To Congress
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: “President George W. Bush today sent to Congress his defense budget for fiscal 2008. …[including] a request for $93.4 billion in emergency supplemental funding to cover equipment reconstitution and the cost of operations in the Global War on Terror for the remainder of fiscal 2007.” (Department of Defense, Press Release, 02/05/07)
Get that, 80 Days ago the funding was requested.
40 DAYS AGO:
President Bush Vows To Veto Democrat Proposals
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: “Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me a bill that does otherwise, I will veto it.” (President Bush, Weekly Radio Address, 03/17/07)
So, that the bill would have to overcome a veto has been known since at least 40 days ago, and in fact, we all knew he would before that. So the responsible thing to do would have been to get the veto over and done with and for Congress to find a bill that could overcome a veto. The Republicans purposefully rolled over on the bill precisely to get the formality of the veto over and get down to passing a bill that could either overcome a veto or that would not be vetoed. The Democrats though decided it would be advantageous to delay still further and the Republican Leadership responded with this scathing letter:
We are writing to urge you to call the House back into session immediately so that Congress can finish its work on the emergency legislation to fund the Global War on Terrorism. This funding request has been pending since February 5, but your leadership team chose to leave town for more than two weeks rather than completing this bill. As a result, our troops have been put at risk.
We are especially troubled by the House’s failure to appoint conferees. The Senate appointed conferees on March 29, moments after passing its bill, but the House never did so despite passing the bill a week earlier. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Senate that he hoped the House-Senate conference would begin on March 30. That hoped-for progress has been thwarted by your failure to act.
It should go without saying that our military leaders are in the best position to know the needs of our troops, and they have left no doubt that this funding is needed urgently. General Peter Schoomaker, United States Army Chief of Staff, has written that, “without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our Soldiers and their families.†Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also emphasized the dangers of delay: “This kind of disruption to key programs will have a genuinely adverse effect on the readiness of the Army and the quality of life for soldiers and their families.â€
Our troops need this funding, and they need it soon. The Senate is in session and ready to work. We respectfully request that you cancel the remainder of your break, call the House back into session, appoint conferees promptly, and work in good faith to pass a clean supplemental funding bill that the President can sign as soon as possible. Every day we don’t fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened.
That didn’t work, so the military itself weighed in forcefully that this delay was an issue. We have heard over and over that we need to listen to the generals, though that seems to only be true when they are criticizing Bush (and it should be noted I generally agree with “the generals†criticisms of Bush.) So let us listen on this issue and ignore all the obfuscation we have been hearing from Senators Murtha and his mouthpieces on this issue:
In a “16-star letter†to Congress, the services’ uniformed leaders are urging a quick passage of the fiscal 2007 emergency supplemental request.
The four service chiefs, all four-star generals, signed the letter.
[…]
“Without approval of the supplemental funds in April, the armed services will be forced to take increasingly disruptive measures in order to sustain combat operations,†the four general and flag officers wrote in their letter. “The impacts on readiness and quality of life could be profound. We will have to implement spending restrictions and reprogram billions of dollars.â€
The uniformed leaders said such reprogramming is an inefficient solution that wastes money.
The spending restrictions could also slow or halt training for follow-on units. With no supplemental by April 15, the Army will be forced to consider curtailing and suspending home-station training for Army Reserve and National Guard units, DoD officials said. The service would slow the training of units slated to deploy next to Iraq and Afghanistan and would cut funding for the upgrade or renovation of barracks and other facilities that support quality of life for troops and their families. Leaders also would stop the repair of equipment necessary to support pre-deployment training, officials said.
If the supplemental funding is not passed by May 15, the Army would consider reducing depot repair work. The service also would delay or curtail the deployment of brigade combat teams for training rotations. This may force the service to extend units in Iraq or Afghanistan, officials said.
No supplemental funding would also delay forming new brigade combat teams, force the service to implement a civilian hiring freeze and prohibit new contracts and service orders, officials said.
This too was ignored. Then we found this out:
• Defense Secretary Gates will soon ask lawmakers to approve the transfer of $1.6 billion from Air Force and Navy personnel accounts to cover the costs of Army operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The Army already has had to reduce quality of life improvements, including upgrades to barracks and other facilities, Gates wrote.
• Officials also have reduced repair and maintenance used for deployment training and cut back on training exercises for non-deployed Guard and Reserve units.
And if funding is not approved by mid-May, then…
…the Army will reduce the pace of equipment overhaul work at Army depots…
…curtail training rotations for some brigades scheduled for overseas deployment, and…
…delay transforming Army brigades into more modular units.
Unfortunately the Democrats chose to delay the final vote until now.
TODAY:
Congress Will Finally Pass A Bill That The President Said He Would Veto More Than 40 Days Ago:
“The Senate is expected to pass a bill today that would order the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin this fall. Last night, the House voted 218-208 to pass the $124.2 billion supplemental spending measure containing the provision. President Bush is expected to receive the bill next week, and swiftly veto it.” (Anne Flaherty, “Senate Expected to Pass Troop Exit Bill,” Associated Press, 04/26/07)
So, the games can stop and we can get down to figuring out what to do next finally. Oh wait! The games don’t end. They want to delay another day, and why!
Democrats Plan To Further Delay Sending The Bill To The President:
“Democrats said the bill was on track to arrive on the president’s desk on Tuesday, the anniversary of Bush’s announcement aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.” (Anne Flaherty, “Bush Veto Of Iraq Bill Could Come 4 Years After ‘Victory’ Speech Aboard Aircraft Carrier,” Associated Press, 04/26/07)
Of course this issue is still claimed to not be important by many. Never mind that we have shown again and again that the claim this is not affecting the mission is false. Here are the posts from which much of this is drawn going over the entire sorry story:
https://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=680
https://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=745
https://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=747
https://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=800
https://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=844
The first post in that list shows that when the claim was first being made that the delay wasn’t important, that it wouldn’t affect us, was demonstrably false from the beginning. The claim was based on a selective use of the Congressional Research Service Report. The key point that was being ignored, either through ignorance or disingenousness, was this:
To use this transfer authority, DOD would have to submit a reprogramming request that could temporarily move for example, procurement funds into Army O&M as long as the four defense committees approved.
[…]
The Army has suggested that these actions would disrupt its programs including facilities repair, depot maintenance, and training. In order to ensure that funding is available for the later months of the year, the Army may very well decide that it must slow down its non-war-related operations before money would run out by, for example, limiting facility maintenance and repairs, delaying equipment overhauls, restricting travel and meetings, and, perhaps slowing down training. Although it is true that a delay in passage of the FY2007 supplemental could require additional management actions, Congress has given DOD flexibility by providing transfer authority so that funds can be moved to meet more urgent requirements. In this case, because the transfers would presumably be temporary, the disruptions might also be less onerous.
In addition, funding for operation and maintenance finances a wide variety of activities ranging from day-to-day maintenance of military facilities to pre-deployment training of troops. The Army could take some actions that might be less efficient but would not necessarily harm readiness by for example, delaying facilities repairs until later in the year or splitting support contracts into smaller increments so that obligations would be smaller initially and larger later in the year.
So while the effect wouldn’t be dire, it would affect operations. As I have demonstrated above, that is exactly what has happened. Assertion, now proof.
Yet, we still get to hear over and over again that it won’t affect the mission.
Now we get to the most disturbing part, and why your position on the war or even setting the withdrawal date should not effect how you feel about or analyze the issue. We all want our involvement to end as soon as possible, and I hope everyone wishes for it to be as painless as possible for the Iraqi people when we do so, whatever the reason or rationale for our withdrawal. Nothing will help us leave sooner or give the Iraqi state more of a chance than an effective a military as we can help them create. Anything which sets that back delays our ability to leave and makes leaving more dangerous for the Iraqi’s. Today we learn more about the delay’s affect upon the effort to train the Iraqi army:
“The Money To Train The Iraqi Units Has Dried Up.”
GEN. CALDWELL, CHIEF SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE – IRAQ: “…Because Of This Lack Of Funding, MNSTC-I (Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq) Is Unable To Continue At The Pace They Were In The Developmental Process Of The Iraqi Security Forces. And, you know, obviously we’re looking at that real closely and it is starting to have some — an impact today and will only, you know, have more of an impact over time.” (Blake Dvorak, “Report From Iraq,” 04/05/07)
“The Congress’ Failure To Pass The Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) Supplemental Budget Is The Only Thing Holding Up The Growth And Training Of The Iraqi Military … The Money To Train The Iraqi Units Has Dried Up.“
“The fact is that the U.S. and Iraqi government continue to push the training of additional Iraqi combat and support troops, and are funding a dramatic growth in the capabilities in the Iraqi Security Forces. The Congress’ failure to pass the Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) Supplemental Budget is the only thing holding up the growth and training of the Iraqi military. … The money to train the Iraqi units has dried up.”
“The Money To Train The Support Units Cannot Be Legally Reappropriated From U.S. Budgets To Fund A Foreign Military Equipment/Training Program, So The Programs Ha[ve] Stopped.” “While about 75 percent of the expansion of the Iraqi Security Forces is funded by the Iraqi government, this money is focused on equipping and training new combat units, including upgrading units to armored and mechanized divisions. The funds to train and equip over 33,000 Iraqi Army logistics, sustainment, maintenance, and support personnel comes from the U.S. FY07 supplemental budget. Currently, the Iraqi Army has about 13,000 support personnel to sustain a 138,000 man force. The expansion of support personnel by 33,000 troops by the end of 2007 would provide the bare minimum support necessary for independent operations. The money to train the support units cannot be legally reappropriated from U.S. budgets to fund a foreign military equipment/training program, so the programs ha[ve] stopped.” (Bill Roggio, “Supporting Which Troops”)
Since people have claimed that money can just be moved around by the military at will, the sentence in bold is critical. It can’t be.
If you want the troops home sooner, this is not the way to do it. As anyone involved in any kind of training knows the time lost is only the bingeing. You can’t just pick up where you left off. A four week delay is likely to mean six weeks to make it up.
Congress needs to act and quickly. The Democrats in particular need to get this ball rolling, they are in control. If they can get the votes to force an arbitrary withdrawal date, then that is democracy. I firmly believe that is unwise. If they can’t, they need to find something to fix the situation until they can.
Tags: Democrats, funding, Iraq, John Murtha, partisanship, politics, Republicans, Senate, Think progress, War
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Andrew Sullivan received an e-mail from a Marine in Anbar which gives more depth to the NY Times report from Anbar. I am posting the whole thing. Notice for those who tried to follow our little spat about COIN in this posts comments, the Marine makes the point that COIN techniques have been successful in the past when used, most famously in Vietnam and Algeria. The basics having been laid out by David Galula. So let us first look at Galula and then at the report from our marine, which is very well written and thoughtful.
Some choice bits:
The View From the Bluff: Lance’s Economic and Finance Blog
