Senate passes $91.3 billion war funding bill

[Pi Mako]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday passed a $91.3 billion military spending bill, shorn of money President Barack Obama wants to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but allowing him to significantly ramp up the U.S. war in Afghanistan.



The Senate voted 86-3 to pass the bill, which provides money for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, setting up House-Senate talks on a compromise measure to present to Obama next month.



The spending measure closely tracks Obama's request for war funds, although the $80 million he was seeking to close the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was dropped Wednesday.



A three-day Senate debate on the bill featured little of the angst over the situation in Afghanistan that permeated debate in the House last week on companion legislation.



Obama is sending more than 20,000 additional troops there and, for the first time next year, the annual cost of the war in Afghanistan is projected to exceed the cost of fighting in Iraq.



With support forces, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan is expected to be about 68,000 by the end of the year — more than double the size of the U.S. force at the end of 2008.



Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against the measure war spending bill.



Rest of the article here:



http://charter.net/news/read.php?ps=1018&a...LARSDCCLM_UNEWS



Uhhh... I rarely have anything intellectual to say to these sort of things, but I will say this: Lawl.

[aine]

CHANGE!!1

[Tsuki]

I knew this was going to happen, but yet I still have faith in the government and Obama administration. Nothing about this is out of left-field, and was completely expected. A US president just cannot drop a "war" while in the middle of it, whether it is a Republican president or a Democratic president. There are just too many other forces involved.



There are impressive social, domestic reforms being pushed that have conservatives' knickers in a tremendous twist, but there will always be THOSE liberals that will settle for nothing less than some kind of rainbow pacifist world where "playing nice" with the world will somehow magically make disappear the last 50 years of aggressive US foreign policy. 's not going to happen.



I'm impressed the Obama administration has the cojones to push its domestic reform policies, continue to try to stimulate the US and global economies, and wage two wars all at the same time. It's gonna hurt tax-wise, but sometimes these things are necessary.