Spending Lags for Training of Iraqi Police

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has spent just 40 percent of the $7 billion appropriated in 2005 for the training of Iraqi and Afghanistan security forces, a top Pentagon priority that is lynchpin for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The slow pace of spending was outlined in a congressional report that also raised questions about whether the Pentagon needs the full $5.9 billion it has requested for training this year in an emergency spending bill that is pending in Congress.

The report comes as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Bush administration have complained about cuts in the funding for Iraqi forces that is included in the House-passed version of the bill.

In a report obtained by The Associated Press, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said the Pentagon is spending at a slower rate than Defense Department officials initially expected. As of Jan. 1, the report said, the Pentagon had allocated $2.1 billion, or just 37 percent, of the $5.7 billion in Iraqi training funds for the 2005 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060414/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_training_funds_1;_

[Kutjara]

1. Anyone else get the feeling...

...that withdrawing our troops isn't uppermost in the Shrub administration's mind?

[LynnTheDem]

2. That's ok. The way they're dying, won't be many Iraqi police to train.

Maybe bush & his Cartel can go to Iraq and find that missing $9 billion. Of OUR money.