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★阿修羅♪
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(回答先: やはり選挙が近いのですね。あらしが出てきて実感してま〜〜〜す。【特別サービス 写真＋Steve Bell の漫画です。】やるきまんまん（爆） 投稿者 クエスチョン 日時 2003 年 11 月 05 日 23:25:54)
上記漫画のＵＲＬと関連記事です。
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons
Bush wins $87bn to keep up fight in Iraq
President persuades reluctant US Senate to grant funding as reconstruction takes a back seat to military priorities
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday November 5, 2003
The Guardian
At a time when the human and financial cost of America's war in Iraq has never seemed higher, President George Bush got what he needed to stay the course yesterday after winning the Senate's approval for his $87.5bn (£52bn) spending plan.
The package was seen as a victory for the White House over Democratic and Republican senators who had balked at saddling the American taxpayer with the costs of the war. It takes America's spending on the war through 2004 to an estimated $130bn.
But while the White House has tried to characterise the cost as a patriotic duty, and an act of generosity towards the Iraqi people, the breakdown of the $87.5bn owes far more to Humvees and other needs for the US military, than about hospitals for Iraq.
Only $18.6bn of the total has been allotted to the rebuilding of Iraq, compared to $64.7bn to the US military to finance America's occupations, of Afghanistan and Iraq.
However, even that raised hackles among senators, who shaved more than $1bn off Mr Bush's request for reconstruction. In doing so, they juggled their grave misgivings about the cost of the war, with the reality that America cannot just walk away.
But after a month of tumultuous debate - and White House arm-twisting of Republicans who had sought to turn some of the aid to Iraq from a grant to a loan - the Senate decided it had little choice but to honour Mr Bush's request.
"We must win the war that we started because the consequences of failure would be catastrophic," Mark Dayton, a Democratic Senator from Minnesota told reporters.
The passage of the spending bill marks a triumph for Mr Bush, particularly at a time when Americans were running scared of the cost. Opinion polls last month showed 59% of Americans opposed to spending $87bn on Iraq and Afghanistan. That unease has been seized on by anti-war organisations, as well as some of the Democratic candidates.
A video clip on MoveOn.org, the website which helped turn Howard Dean into the frontrunning Democratic candidate, puts it succinctly. "If there is money for Iraq, why isn't there money for America?", a video voiceover asks, after noting that the money could have paid for 10,000 new schools or two million teachers in the US.
Such considerations appeared to guide the senators as they deliberated over Mr Bush's requests for funds for a new Iraqi police force and army, rehabilitation of electricity and water lines, and hospitals.
Balking at the demands for $50m to provide cars to the Iraqi police, $153m for waste management that would include 40 rubbish trucks, $9m to create postcodes, and $150m for an elite children's hospital in Basra, they shaved $1.6bn from Mr Bush's original request. That still leaves $5.5bn to improve electricity supply in Iraq - by far the largest budget allotment. Hospitals and clinics were allotted $493m.
Afghanistan, by contrast, got an additional dollop from the Senate, with lawmakers topping up the $800m in Mr Bush's original request to $1.2bn.
Despite that dose of generosity, however, the bulk of the money will go directly to the Pentagon. That includes $51bn for the military occupation of Iraq, as well as $10bn for the occupation of Afghanistan. In practical terms, that breaks down to $239m for armoured Humvees, part of an estimated $5.5bn in arms purchases. The biggest chunk of spending, $39bn, will go for operations, while $17.8bn will cover personnel costs.
These were the least likely items to trouble politicians. A number of the measures will directly benefit army reservists and members of the National Guard, who have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks about unfair treatment by the Pentagon.
According to the breakdown, some of the funds are designated to buy body armour for reservists, who have been complaining of going short, as well as health insurance when they return home.
Breakdown of costs
$39bn military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
$17.8bn personnel cost
$5.5bn arms purchases
$18.6bn reconstruction of Iraq
$239m for armoured Humvees
$500m effects of Hurricane Isabel and the Californian forest fires
Special report
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