Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Republicans killed a
provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the
United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S.
military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and
congressional aides said on Friday.

The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes
$65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to
President George W. Bush for signing into law.

As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the
Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the
funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with
Iraq.

A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon
could not use the next round of war funding to “establish
permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise
United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil
resources of Iraq.”

The Bush administration has said it does not want to place
any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it
wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces
are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled
out permanent bases in Iraq.

While the Pentagon does not necessarily plan to use any of
the emergency funds to establish a permanent military presence
in Iraq, congressional Democrats wanted Congress to be on
record against such a long-term military arrangement.

Doing so, they argued, could help overcome Middle East
fears that the United States intended to control the region
militarily, at least in part to oversee foreign oil reserves.

“The perception that the U.S. intends to occupy Iraq
indefinitely is fueling the insurgency and making our troops
more vulnerable,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat
who won House approval of her amendment on permanent bases.

“The House and Senate went on record opposing permanent
bases, but now the Republicans are trying to sneak them back in
the middle of the night,” Lee said.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, authored the Senate
language.

Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the
provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators
convened this week in a late-night work session to write a
compromise spending bill.

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the senior Democrat on the House
Appropriations Committee, tried to reinsert the language, but
it was opposed by Rep. Jim Kolbe, the Arizona Republican
responsible for foreign affairs portions of the spending bill.

Next week, the House is scheduled to have a wide-ranging
debate about the Iraq war at which time Democrats are likely to
raise this issue again.