Entry tags:

executive power, iraq

Long live the empire
CJR Daily (in re: USA Today), 3/24/2006:

The head of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq has declared that America is done paying the bills to rebuild the country. "The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment," said Daniel Speckhard, director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.

The government has slipped a noose around the $21 billion program that, according to the article, was supposed to "fix or build schools, roads, clinics, ports, bridges, government offices, phone networks, power plants and water systems."

I guess that means we're done, right?  Time to pack up and come home because the job is done.  So why is the Pentagon ramping up construction of permanent bases in Iraq?

Los Angeles Times, same day:

Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for U.S. forces.

Questions on Capitol Hill about the future of the bases have been prompted by the new emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last week with $67.6 billion in funding for the war effort, including the base money.

Although the House approved the measure, lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon explain its plans for the bases, and they unanimously passed a provision blocking the use of funds for base agreements with the Iraqi government.

"It's the kind of thing that incites terrorism," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said of long-term or permanent U.S. bases in countries such as Iraq.

I can see Bush's signing statement now: "The President shall construe the provisions of the spending bill requiring information disclosure in a manner consistent with his constitutional authority to rule the globe"