US agrees aid for Iraq and Afghanistan

The United States Congress has given final approval for $87.5bn (€76.4bn) for military operations and aid in Iraq and Afghanistan, a day after Americans in Iraq endured their worst casualties since March.

In an anticlimactic moment yesterday attended by only a handful of senators, the Senate approved the Bill by voice and handed a legislative victory to President George Bush, who had requested a similar package two months ago.

The vote – in which Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was the only one to shout “Nay” – sparked questions about Bush’s post-war Iraq policies and record budget deficits at home.

“As the presient said time and time again, we will not walk away from Iraq,” said Senator Ted Stevens, a leading author of the Bill. “We will not leave the Iraqi people in chaos, and we will not create a vacuum for terrorist groups to fill.”

In the latest blow to Iraq’s US occupiers, 19 Americans were killed there on Sunday, including 16 soldiers who died when a missile brought down a US Army transport helicopter west of Baghdad.

That shoot-down allowed critics of Bush’s leadership of the Iraq war to argue again that he should have done more to win commitments of troops and resources from other countries.

“Every day, when we see these bloody headlines of American soldiers being killed, we are reminded that had this been a global coalition, … what we’re facing today could have been so much different,” said Senator Dick Durbin.

Even so, Durbin and several others who criticised Bush during the debate said they would support the Bill as the best way to protect US troops.

Byrd, however, called the Bill a “monument to failure”, citing the lack of help from allies and persistent US casualties.

Most of the $87.5bn – €76bn – was for American troops in Iraq, while another $10bn (€8.7bn) was for US forces in Afghanistan. The money includes everything from salaries owed reservists called to active duty to buying aircraft parts, missiles and thousands of extra sets of body armour for ground troops.

In the starkest departure from Bush’s proposal, there is $18.6bn (€16.2bn) – below the president’s plan – for retooling Iraq’s economy and government. This included funds for clinics, power and water supplies and training police officers and entrepreneurs.

Dropped, however, was money that critics said was wasteful or at least not needed urgently. This included money Bush wanted for postal and telephone area codes, a children’s hospital in Basra, which is patrolled by British troops, sanitation trucks and restoration of drained marshlands.

The bill also has $1.2bn for buttressing Afghanistan, $245m for international peacekeeping efforts in Liberia and $500m for helping victims of US natural disasters.

Money also was included to expand Arabic-language broadcasts into Iraq, secure US diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan, provide rewards for the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and aid Pakistan and other US allies.