WP,pg1: Bush Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery: Extra $7 Billion Would Go to Security, Roads

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery
Extra $7 Billion Would Go to Security, Roads
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 25, 2007; Page A01

After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion, the Bush administration is preparing a series of new military, economic and political initiatives aimed partly at preempting an expected offensive this spring by Taliban insurgents, according to senior U.S. officials.

Even as it trumpeted a change of course in Iraq this month, the White House has completed a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package, officials said.

That would represent a sizable increase in the U.S. commitment to the strife-torn country; since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the United States has provided a little more than $14 billion in assistance for Afghanistan, the State Department says.

The U.S. military said yesterday that about 3,500 soldiers in the Army's 10th Mountain Division will have their tours in Afghanistan extended by four months, as part of an effort to beef up U.S. troop strength. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday to discuss Afghanistan, part of a new diplomatic offensive U.S. officials say is aimed at securing more international support for the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Although U.S. officials say the Taliban insurgency does not pose an immediate threat to the Karzai government, they are eager to nip in the bud a potentially bloody Taliban spring offensive that could erode Afghani confidence in the central government and in the staying power of the international coalition that is trying to establish security across the country....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401877.html

[pinniped]

1. Is the pipeline built yet?

Permanent bases?

[acmavm]

2. Crap, we need some recovery money right here in America.

bush** & Co. - the most corrupt greedy bunch of thugs on this planet today.

[KoKo]

3. hmm....we are selling off our own American roads to foreign interests

but can rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq. Sickening. And, that the money could be approved for this is really OTT.

[KittyWampus]

4. Bet the money goes into Iraq instead