Mood in Washington Cloudy as Congress, Public Await Answers
WASHINGTON – As President Bush pushes Congress for $87 billion more for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of Congress have questions, experts are critical and the public continues its support for U.S. troops.
Yet, most agree on one thing: after the administration is pressed for answers, Bush will get the money.
“I think he’s going to receive [the $87 billion], but it’s going to be subject to close scrutiny and explanation,” Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., said in an interview Tuesday. “And I think there’ll be a lot of questions about where it leads us, what other funds are going to be made available from other countries, what kind of revenue-generating capacities are within Iraq over the next year, and what are the prospects for us getting some portion of this back at some point.”
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. had fewer questions about the need for more money.
“This will be expensive, but it will be money well spent if it, as I believe, can lead to having a significant negative effect on the ability of Islamic fundamentalists to use the Middle East as a breeding ground of hate and terrorists bent on attacking our country,” Gregg said in a statement.
Chuck Cushman, director of the Master of Arts and Legislative Affairs program at George Washington University here, Bush must prove himself before the money comes his way.
“I think that he’ll get what he asked for or something very, very close to it,” Cushman said. “But I don’t think he’ll enjoy the process. His administration is going to be dragged over the coals. They’re going to have to defend every decision they’ve made and they’re going to have to demonstrate that they’ve gotten their act together. And then they’ll get the money.
“The mood in Washington has been fairly negative for a while about whether or not the Pentagon and the White House had presented a realistic estimate of what this operation was going to require of the United States,” he said.
According to Cushman and Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute, much of the public’s support derives from its identification of the war in Iraq with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“One of the reasons that I think Americans are going to be somewhat patient — their patience isn’t infinite — but I think that they will be patient because they believe that the war with Iraq is part of the war on terrorism,” Bowman said. “They don’t see it as a separate military event.”
“I think the president gets a pretty big free pass because of the war-on-terror cover,” Cushman said.
“It’s really been surprising to me the whole time to look at the polling since the start of the run-up to this last year that there’s this assumption in the public that Iraq is somehow responsible for Sept.11 when zero evidence has been found of that,” he added.
Whatever their views of the origin of the war, Bowman said many Americans knew tackling Iraq would not be easy.
“Clearly Americans are worried about casualties. How could it be otherwise?” she said. “But at รก the same time, nearly all of the polls that have asked the question show that a solid majority still say that the war was worth the cost. And they have always thought that the peace would be more difficult than winning the war.”
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H. said his constituents have expressed similar thoughts.
“My own feeling and what I’ve heard from people is that there was an expectation that winning the peace was going to be the more difficult part of this job and that this is not a surprise,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “Have there been roadblocks? Absolutely, but I think it was to be expected.
“And I think that while nobody likes to see the threat that our troops are enduring every day, and the increasing casualties are a tragedy for the nation and the families, I think people understand, though, that this is an important component to winning the war on terrorism.”
In an interview Wednesday, Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H. said with the support his New Hampshire constituents have shown for rebuilding Iraq comes a desire to stay informed. “So there’s a strong support for the mission,” he said. “People want information. They want to hear the president speak about our priorities in Iraq. They want to have as strong a sense as possible as to where we’re being successful and where there is work still to be done.”
