war in iraq

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Recommended: U.S. involvement with the Middle East

George W. Bush is asking Congress for $80 billion more for the failed Iraq war. Congress is gearing up to pour more money to "stay the course" of the past two tragic years. Tell your Member of Congress that not one more dime should go to waging war in Iraq. Instead, the U.S. must end the occupation, bring our troops home, and support Iraqi sovereignty.

Many good-intentioned people in the United States say we can't withdraw our troops now and abandon Iraqis to chaos and disorder. Yet the U.S. presence on the streets of Iraq is fueling animosity, motivating the armed resistance, and sealing the fate for failed democracy in Iraq. Every extra day and dime the U.S. spends on its reckless course in Iraq deepens the suffering in Iraq and at home.

The President's fourth "supplemental" spending request for the Iraq war will add $80 billion to the more than $151 billion already appropriated. It is time for us to demand that the Administration and Congress stop perpetuating the cycle of violence in Iraq, stop sending so many soldiers and civilians to their graves, and stop diverting precious resources that could be used to rebuild Iraq and fund critical domestic needs
110 of these organizations have banded together to form U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a national organization committed to ending the war, returning the troops, restoring funding to social programs and government services, and changing the direction of U.S. foreign policy. (A list of USLAW affiliates is posted at the USLAW website at http://uslaboragainstwar.org.)

Union members and their family members are being killed, wounded, disabled and psychologically traumatized in a war that has already killed almost 1500 U.S. military personnel, wounded more than 10,500 others, a war in which more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died. This war is siphoning resources from our communities, starving or eliminating essential public services and social programs, eroding our democratic rights, and making our country even less secure.

It is time for labor to speak out! At this time of discussion about renewing our labor movement, how can we not discuss the most urgent issue facing American and its working families? We ask you to put the issue of the war on the agenda of the up-coming Executive Council meeting. And we urge the national leadership of the AFL-CIO to oppose this reckless, i...

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... the US to more than $200 billion through 2005.
One obvious question when considering costs is why the government has to ask for supplemental appropriates in the first place. Why can't it be put in the annual budget request? According to Chris Preble, director of foreign-policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, "There is one good argument for not using Iraq costs for not being in the annual military budget. That is the risk you build in tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that are not applied to Iraq, but applied to somewhere else. However, that concern is completely overwhelmed by the fact that funding for war by supplements really seems to be intended to conceal some of the costs, and to present costs to Congress to be a fait accompli. Congress can't vote against such things without being accused of undermining troops in the field."
According to Chris Hellman, military-policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, DC, "It seems to me you have to ask the fundamental question. I believe if the president went to Congress and said we are going to put it in the top line and we need to fund it, Congress would say

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