Wouldn't it be swell to know WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING??????????
Kennedy criticizes decision to go to war, calls for more accountability on spending
By Steve Leblanc, Associated Press, 9/18/2003 19:00
BOSTON (AP) The decision to go to war in Iraq was a fraud ''made up in Texas'' to give
Republicans a political boost, Sen. Edward Kennedy said Thursday, calling the Bush
administration's current Iraq policy ''adrift.''
In an hourlong interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy also said the administration has
failed to account for nearly half of the $4 billion the war is costing each month. He said he believed
that much of the unaccounted money is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send in troops.
He expressed doubts about how serious a threat Saddam Hussein posed to the United States in its
battle against terrorism.
''There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the
Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This
whole thing was a fraud,'' Kennedy said.
The White House declined to comment Thursday.
Kennedy said a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office showed that only about $2.5
billion of the $4 billion being spent monthly on the war can be accounted for by the Bush
administration.
''My belief is this money is being shuffled all around to these political leaders in all parts of the
world, bribing them to send in troops,'' he said.
Of the $87 billion in new money requested by President Bush for the war, Kennedy said a small
portion should go as a down payment for reconstruction efforts in Iraq but that the administration
should be required to report back to the Congress to account for the spending.
''If we're spending $4 billion a month now, there ought to be a report on how that money has been
spent up to date, where it's being spent now. The American people have no idea,'' Kennedy said.
''We want to support our troops because they didn't make the decision to go there ... but I don't
think it should be open-ended. We ought to have a benchmark where the administration has to
come back and give us a report,'' he added.
Kennedy was one of 23 senators who voted last October against authorizing President Bush to use
military force to disarm Iraq.
Earlier this year, he supported a Democratic amendment that would have delayed most of President
Bush's proposed tax cuts, and most spending increases, until the president provided estimates on
the cost of war with Iraq. The amendment failed.
Kennedy said the focus on Iraq has drawn the nation's attention away from more direct threats,
including al-Qaida, continued instability in Afghanistan or the nuclear ambitions of North Korea.
''I think all of those pose a threat to the security of the people of Massachusetts much more than
the threat from Iraq,'' Kennedy said. ''Terror has been put on the sidelines for the last 12 months.''
Kennedy also criticized the administration for failing to articulate a coherent policy in Iraq and said
administration officials relied on ''distortion, misrepresentation, a selection of intelligence'' to
justify their case for war.
On ''Meet the Press'' this past Sunday, Cheney said he didn't know if Saddam was involved in the
Sept. 11 attacks, but asserted a relationship between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network that
''stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s.''
Kennedy called those remarks ''misrepresentations'' and faulted the Bush administration for
providing confusing signals on Saddam's possession of weapons of mass destruction. This week,
President Bush said there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist
attacks.
The failure to outline a clearer justification for war has hurt the nation's standing in the
international community and could damage efforts to share information needed to track down
terrorists, Kennedy said.
While he said he is glad Saddam Hussein is no longer in control of Iraq, Kennedy said the
administration did not do enough post-war planning.
''No one questioned whether we were going to have a successful military policy,'' he said. ''What
everyone questioned was whether we had a peace policy, and we have none. It's being made up
every single day and American service men are paying for it and this is directly the responsibility of
this administration and no one is being held accountable.''
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