Obama seeks $75.5 bln for Iraq, Afghan wars 2009 | World News - Hindustan Times
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Obama seeks $75.5 bln for Iraq, Afghan wars 2009

Reuters | By, Washington
Feb 26, 2009 11:16 PM IST

President Barack Obama is seeking an additional $75.5 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of the current fiscal year in a budget released that reflects plans to pull troops out of Iraq.

President Barack Obama is seeking an additional $75.5 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of the current fiscal year in a budget released on Thursday that reflects plans to pull troops out of Iraq.

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Obama, in his first budget, is also requesting $130 billion for military operations in the two wars for fiscal year 2010 that starts Oct. 1, which would be a decline from the roughly $140 billion he expects will be needed this year.

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"The budget recognizes and funds the president's strategy to increase our resources in Afghanistan while responsibly removing combat brigades from Iraq," the document said.

Congress has already appropriated about half of the money that the Obama administration says it will need for Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

The proposed 2010 budget would increase US defense spending by 4 per cent, or $20.4 billion, to $533.7 billion, excluding the cost of the wars or work on nuclear weapons.

Total spending in the Pentagon base budget and for the wars would reach nearly $664 billion in fiscal 2010, if the plan is approved by Congress.

The administration anticipates big savings in the budget over the next few years in a number of areas, including defense spending. Obama aides say the drawdown of troops from the Iraq war will help yield significant budget savings.

But some private analysts are skeptical that a reduction of troops will bring big savings in the near-term because the drawdown from Iraq comes as the administration is boosting troop levels in Afghanistan.

An administration official said the costs of moving personnel and equipment out of a war zone were included in the budget.

Obama plans to give a speech on Friday at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina, in which he is widely expected to announce steps to begin pulling US combat troops out of Iraq.

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