Bush Will Seek Aid, Jobs Funds To Bolster Iraq

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

January 5, 2007

Bush Will Seek Aid, Jobs Funds To Bolster Iraq
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and GREG JAFFE
January 5, 2007; Page A1

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's new strategy for Iraq, which the president is set to announce next week, will include a big boost in spending to fund reconstruction, economic growth and job creation, as part of a broader effort to help embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

People familiar with the matter say that Mr. Bush will detail his request for billions of dollars in new aid for Iraq next week in an eagerly awaited speech on his strategy to contain sectarian violence there and clear the way for an eventual U.S. military withdrawal. In his speech, Mr. Bush will also call for the deployment of as many as 20,000 additional American combat troops to Iraq as part of a controversial "surge" designed to stabilize Baghdad and other violent regions of the country.

The administration's emerging Iraq strategy, which it is calling "The New Way Forward," will also include an effort to funnel U.S. money to moderate Iraqi political parties as a means of building a centrist political coalition to support Mr. Maliki, according to people familiar with the matter.

The proposals are part of what is shaping up as an effort by Mr. Bush to retool his Iraq strategy across all fronts. The measures are certain to prove controversial and could set the administration on a collision course with the new

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116796897694467905.html (subscription)

[PSPS]

1. Translation: Funnel more money even faster to bush's cronies and contributors

[saigon68]

7. The chimpanzee celebrates the hanging

[dweller]

2. surge *one, $ave $everal billions

to fund reconstruction, economic growth and job creation here.

dp

[donheld]

3. Maybe Bush and Cheney should resign and

become President and VP of Iraq. Let's let them go show Iraq how it's done. :crazy:

[salin]

4. How about requiring that recipients of big reconstruction bids include

a provision specifying employing a percentage of Iraqis (that is 40% of hirees... or even 20% of hirees) - something that probably should have been going on since the beginning - before the unrest grew to the current levels. Instead - since the early days, orgs like Haliburton/KBR were importing cheap labor from Bangladesh and other impoverished nations rather than hiring Iraqis - in order to pump up the size of their already huge profits.

[rodeodance]

5. NO, we have put enough $ into that dark hole! no no no no

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Yes, let's spend all of the US taxpayers' money (and that of their children and grandkids) on Iraq!

[ninkasi]

8. Any more funds for Iraq

should come from the wealthy benefactors of Bush's tax cuts for the super rich. Roll those tax cuts back.They are the ones who have made money in this whole unholy mess. Let them pay for it, and let their children fight it. As far as money for jobs goes, I think many Americans whose jobs have been shipped overseas might like to get in on part of that.

[truthisfreedom]

9. "A New Direction" v.s. "A New Way Forward"... they're f*cking attempting to co-opt our phrase!

It will never work. The phrase is dead on arrival, and we're the majority now, bushies. You're about to have every cavity probed.