Vol. 71/No. 34      September 17, 2007

The funding request comes on top of the $460 billion in the 2008 war budget. After a few weeks of antiwar posturing earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved a White House request for $100 billion in supplemental war funding in May.

While in Iraq, Bush praised the progress of Washington’s ground offensive—involving 28,000 additional troops since January. In Anbar, a former stronghold of Sunni forces fighting against U.S. troops, “you see Sunnis who once fought side by side with al-Qaeda against coalition troops now fighting side by side with coalition troops against al-Qaeda,” he said.

An August 23 report by 16 U.S. intelligence agencies known as a Nation al Intelligence Estimate warned that withdrawal of troops would worsen sectarian fighting. Sunni and Shiite capitalist forces are at war over control of Iraq’s resources. The report said that Washington’s military escalation has produced “measurable but uneven improvements” in security.

The intelligence report and a separate report by the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) both said the Iraqi government has made little progress in adopting measures aimed at calming the sectarian fighting.

The Bush administration has been pressing the Iraqi government to pass a set of 18 “benchmark” measures. Like Bush’s trip to Anbar together with al-Maliki, a Shiite, the measures are aimed at reassuring wealthy Sunnis, who ruled the country under Hussein, that they have a stake in the U.S.-backed government.

The GAO report estimates that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks have not been met.

The National Intelligence Estimate describes the al-Maliki government as “unable to govern effectively” and in danger of becoming more unstable over the next 6 to 12 months. The main Sunni bloc in the Iraqi government, along with supporters of Shiite cleric al-Sadr, have quit al-Maliki’s cabinet in the past months.

The report is more optimistic about Washington’s military progress, highlighting growing cooperation with Sunni militias that have turned against al-Qaeda. Washington’s military effort in Iraq received a boost August 29 when Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced that his Mahdi Army militia would suspend operations for six months. The U.S. military said the suspension of operations by al-Sadr’s militia would allow U.S. and Iraqi government troops to intensify their actions against al-Qaeda.

In an August 31 interview with the Australian newspaper Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said that the troop escalation has sharply reduced sectarian killings in Baghdad.

The number of civilian deaths in Iraq rose in August, according to AP. Using Iraqi police reports the press agency said 1,809 civilians were reported killed in August, about 50 more than in July. AP said 27,564 Iraqi civilians have been reported killed since the agency began collecting figures on April 28, 2005.  
 
 
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