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Iraq readies arms case against Iran

Rebuilding will take more time, envoy says

By David R. Sands
May 7, 2008

Iraq's U.S. ambassador said yesterday that his country still needs time before it can fully finance its own reconstruction effort, despite an oil-export windfall that has lawmakers on Capitol Hill demanding Baghdad pick up more of the tab.

Ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie put the cost just of rebuilding his country's shattered basic infrastructure in the hundreds of billions of dollars, arguing that U.S. critics should not attack his country's budget choices in a "populist manner."

"We are willing to pay more and more and, ultimately, to pay all our reconstruction costs," Mr. Sumaida'ie told reporters and editors at The Washington Times yesterday. "We are not shying away from our responsibility."

The funding issue has come to the fore as Congress takes up President Bush's latest spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With Baghdad projected to run up a massive budget surplus this year, thanks to $70 billion in oil revenues, congressional Democrats have sharply questioned the administration's request for some $3 billion in reconstruction, training and equipment funds for Iraq.

Bills now under consideration in both the House and Senate would put new conditions on U.S. reconstruction aid in light of the surplus.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a measure last week that would prohibit the Pentagon from funding any Iraqi reconstruction project costing more than $2 million. The bill would also require Iraq's government to pay the salaries and training costs of Sunni militias that have been funded by the U.S. military after they turned on al Qaeda and other extremists groups.

"It is unacceptable that U.S. taxpayers continue to bear a burden that the Iraqi government can and should assume," said committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat.

House Democrats have drafted a separate funding bill that would prohibit U.S. aid for rebuilding towns or equipping Iraqi troops unless the Iraqi government matched every dollar, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

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