The Obama administration is quietly lobbying Congress to restore $1 billion needed for funding U.S. military training of Iraqi security forces that was cut by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin during a closed-door hearing last week.
The cut in training for Iraqi security forces is now embedded in the Senate’s defense authorization bill for the 2011 fiscal year.
During a markup hearing on the bill on May 27, Mr. Levin, who in the past supported training programs for Afghan and Iraqi security services, cut the administration’s request from $2 billion to $1 billion.
The training in Iraq is particularly important as U.S. combat forces draw down to 50,000 troops later this year as part of a major pullback outlined in a recent U.S.-Iraq status of forces agreement.
U.S. military leaders have said that a key element of the U.S. exit strategy during the period of transition is that Iraqi security forces will take a greater role in keeping order and peace.
Mr. Levin, however, said he thinks Iraq can now begin to pay for the training of its own forces, particularly after Iraq’s parliament this year cut spending on defense.
Last week, Mr. Levin told reporters that he expected that President Obama would not like the cut to Iraqi military training.
“He may not like the cut of $1 billion for the Iraqi army,” Mr. Levin said. “But some of us feel pretty strongly about this issue: that it’s time - given the amount of money that Iraq is taking in oil revenue, and the fact they cut their own defense budget in half in the parliament, it’s kind of hard to justify putting billions of dollars in for the Iraq army, OK?”
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, stated in an e-mail Wednesday that the $2 billion training request for the 2011 budget was based on an assessment from U.S. military commanders in Iraq, and an interagency process that took into account Iraq’s defense spending.
“The secretary of defense and [U.S. Commander in Iraq] Gen. [Raymond T.] Odierno feel strongly that a failure to fund the entire [International Security Forces] request increases the risk that the ISF will not be able to sustain the hard-fought security gains we have achieved in Iraq,” Mr. Morrell said.
Another administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity echoed Mr. Morrell’s statement. “We support the request, think it is important and hope it’ll be restored as the process moves forward.”
Two staff members in Congress said Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has pressed Mr. Levin to reconsider the funding cut.
Mr. Levin based his position in part on a recent Government Accountability Office, or GAO, audit that concluded Iraq can pay for its own training and defense.
In a letter to the GAO’s acting comptroller general dated Feb. 28, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and Gen. Odierno provided what they said was more accurate financial data that showed Iraq faced fiscal shortfalls in 2010 and 2011.
“Helping the Iraqi people recover from decades of despotism, war, and sanctions has presented extraordinary challenges,” the two men stated. “Not surprisingly, years of misgovernment and civil strife - punctuated recently by devastating bomb attacks on the Ministry of Finance - have crippled Iraq’s public financial management capabilities.”
Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, who oversaw the training of the Iraqi military in 2007 and 2008, said the $2 billion in the budget was important for two major reasons.
“Number one, this is a demonstration of continued commitment by the United States of sustained development of the Iraqi security forces,” Gen. Dubik said. “And number two, in order to keep on track the equipment side of training associated with our withdrawal, we need to sustain this level.”
Gen. Dubik said Mr. Levin was helpful in 2007. “He helped me a lot in the approach that Congress took in sustaining adequate funding,” he said.
The retired three-star general also said that since 2006, the Iraqis “have spent more on their own forces than we have.”
The House version of the defense authorization bill includes the full $2 billion request. Both chambers of congress are expected to take up the measure after the Memorial Day recess.
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