US President George W. Bush asked Congress last night for $87 billion for the US military and reconstruction in Iraq and urged the United Nations to set aside past differences and help out.
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US President George W. Bush asked Congress last night for $87 billion for the US military and reconstruction in Iraq
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"This undertaking is difficult and costly, yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security," Mr Bush said in an 18-minute address aimed at reassuring Americans nervous about daily attacks on US troops in Iraq.
As the country prepares to mark the second anniversary of the September 11th, 2001, attacks, Mr Bush asked Americans for patience and warned that more casualties should be expected in the face of guerrillas who "want us to leave Iraq before our work is done.
"Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there - and there they must be defeated. This will take time, and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror," he said.
The president offered no timetable on withdrawing the troops, nor did he say how close the US-led occupation force might be to finding weapons of mass destruction. He said the current deployment of 130,000 US troops should be sufficient.
He said he would soon submit to Congress a request for $87 billion and that it would include some assistance for Afghanistan. The $87 billion includes $66 billion for the US military deployment and intelligence operations. It would push the nation's budget deficit to well above the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time.
After the bitter UN dispute over whether to go to war in Iraq, Mr Bush sounded a conciliatory tone as he sought to get Security Council backing for a new UN resolution that would establish a multinational force.
It was a shift from Mr Bush's insistence that the United States and Britain would take the lead role in Iraq. So far anti-war powers France, Germany and Russia want more UN control than the United States is offering.