Bush On The Air: What The Troops Need
May 5, 2007, 9:02pm
With only the second veto of his presidency behind him (and upheld by Congress), President Bush today said the priority now is to enact “a responsible emergency war spending bill that will fully fund our troops as quickly as possible.”
Earlier this week, Bush vetoed the bill that Democrats in Congress had sent him because, as he noted in his weekly radio address, “it set a fixed date to begin to pull out of Iraq, imposed unworkable conditions on our military commanders, and included billions of dollars in spending unrelated to the war.” Now he has dispatched three key Bush administration officials to negotiate with Democrats on the parameters of the next emergency spending measure.
“I recognize that many Democratic leaders saw this bill as an opportunity to make a statement about their opposition to the war,” Bush said. “In a democracy, we should debate our differences openly and honestly. But now it is time to give our troops the resources they are waiting for.”
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York countered in the Democratic address that Democrats sent Bush a bill that would have fully funded the troops while changing the mission in Iraq and that Democrats remain commited to achieving those goals.
“This war has devolved into something the president never mentioned when he asked our country to go to war in Iraq, and something that we never bargained for — policing a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites,” Schumer said. “The Sunnis and Shiites have been bitter enemies long before we got there, and that will continue long after we leave.
It’s simply not the job of America or our troops to stand in the middle of a civil war as Sunnis and Shiites shoot at each other and pay no heed to the central government while our troops are caught in the crosshairs.”
Categories: Military, Iraq, White House, Weekly Radio Address, Budget
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