SecDef Gates Condemns Democratic Failure to Fund

Secretary of Defense Gates says the Democratic efforts to force a withdrawal are complicating his efforts to actually win the war. This week, the House approved funding for only three more months of war in Iraq. The Senate is considering the bill now.

This does not seem like a smart way to pay for a war:

"It seems to me that there ought to be some deference to those who are running the war, the generals, in terms of whether it's at the pace at which this draw-down should take place and based on the conditions on the ground," he said.

Gates said the 50 billion dollars approved by the House would last only until February.

He said the army is making preparations for furloughs of an estimated 200,000 civilian employees and defense contractors to free up money for operations.

Senate Majority Leader Reid says that if the Senate does not approve the House bill, Democrats will refuse to spend any further money on the war at all this year.

I'm not sure what's changed that Reid thinks this will work now, when he was afraid to do it back in July while we were actually in the lowest of the low spots when it comes to Iraq. Suddenly we're seeing progress and that makes Democrats very anxious to see it ended before public opinion sways again.

More: From the AP:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that unless Congress passes funding for the Iraq war within days, he will direct the Army and Marine Corps to begin developing plans to lay off employees and terminate contracts early next year.

...he said that he is faced with the undesirable task of preparing to cease operations at Army bases by mid-February, and lay off about 100,000 defense department employees and an equal number of civilian contractors. A month later, he said, similar moves would have to be made by the Marines.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 07:24 PM

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