http://www.senate.gov/~byrd/byrd_newsroom/byrd_news_sept/byrd_2003_septemberlist/byrd_2003_septemberlist_7.htmlAfter a dismal summer of watching the situation in Iraq spiral from bad to worse, the White House appears to have finally acknowledged what many of us have understood from the beginning: it is going to take huge amounts of money, a long term commitment, and substantial help from the international community to restore order to Iraq.
After stiff-arming the United Nations over its refusal to rubber stamp the Administration's war plans for Iraq, and alienating some of our staunchest allies in the process, the White House has finally acquiesced to seeking a new resolution that potentially would give the United Nations the "vital role" in post-war Iraq that the President once pledged. I only hope this change of heart is not a lesson too late for the learning. The United States has squandered on Iraq so much of the international good will that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks that it may be impossible to regain all the ground that has been lost.
It is particularly ironic that the Administration's decision to seek a new resolution to win international support from the United Nations comes almost exactly one year after the President sternly warned that body that it faced becoming irrelevant if it failed to support the United States on Iraq. How far off the mark that assessment turned out to be! Instead of being irrelevant, the United Nations has emerged as America's best and possibly only hope to win desperately needed international support for the post-war mission in Iraq.
It is equally ironic that the Administration is seeking an estimated $60 billion to $70 billion in additional funding for Iraq from the American taxpayers at a time when the Senate is debating adding a fraction of that amount to an appropriations bill to provide critical funding – funding the President himself pledged to provide in his No Child Left Behind initiative – for schoolchildren in poor school districts.
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