Bush request fires up critics, advisers

MSNBC staff and wire reports

A day after President Bush said he would ask Congress for $87 billion to pay for U.S. engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, a domestic battle was being fought Monday over those billions and the bigger policy picture. Democratic presidential hopefuls poured criticism on the president, while Bush's advisers defended his request, which would come on top of the $79 billion approved in April for the initial costs of the war and its aftermath and for worldwide efforts against terrorism.

THE DEMOCRATIC critics included former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who accused Bush of going into Iraq "recklessly."

The United States is "now bogged down," Dean said on NBC's "Today" show, spending as much on Iraq and Afghanistan as it did during the Vietnam War.

Saying it's critical that other nations get involved, Dean said "we're in trouble and we need the help of all of the people that the president insulted on the way into Iraq."

Dean added that the president left "the false impression that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11" and that Saddam and al-Qaida were working together.

Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., another White House hopeful, said the president, in his speech, "has recognized that he has been going down the wrong path."

The administration, Gephardt added, "must begin the process of fully engaging our allies and sharing the burden of building a stable democracy in Iraq."

And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in a statement issued by his presidential campaign, said Bush offered "few specifics on how we will erase the mismanagement of this administration in Iraq -- a mismanagement that has cost America precious lives and valuable time in securing a plan to win the peace."

'SPEND WHAT IS NECESSARY'
The president, in a Sunday evening address to the nation that combined policy with patriotic fervor, argued that the United States must stay the course in postwar Iraq despite a mounting cost in lives and money.

Four days before the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush said the nation "will spend what is necessary to achieve this essential victory" in the war on terrorism.

"The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations," Bush said.

"The terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge," Bush added. "In this they are mistaken."

Seeking support for his policy, he said that "the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans.

"We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today," he added, "so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities."

FIRST MAJOR SPEECH SINCE MAY 1
Bush described Iraq as the central front in the war against terrorism and said that "enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there, and there they must be defeated.

"This will take time and require sacrifice," he said. "Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own nation more secure."

Bush addressed the nation in his first major speech on Iraq since May 1 when he stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major combat operations. Since then, more Americans have died in Iraq than were killed during the war. The overall death count is 287 -- 149 since May 1.

The violence -- including four major bombing attacks in a month -- have raised alarms about Bush's handling of Iraq. Republicans and Democrats alike have urged Bush to change course and seek more troops and money from other countries.

While the confrontation with Saddam made the president's popularity skyrocket, public confidence in his handling of Iraq has dropped since the war, leveling off in the mid-50 percent area.

Questions also have been fueled by the administration's failure to find any of Saddam's alleged illegal weapons or Saddam himself, and has yet to prove a link between Saddam and al-Qaida, the terrorist network accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks.

When he started the war on Iraq in March, Bush warned that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be sold to terrorists.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told "Today" that removing Saddam is victory enough. "Removing Saddam Hussein removes the threat of weapons of mass destruction," she said.

Rice also appeared on ABC, arguing that the funds spent in Iraq "will be won back over and over again" by stabilizing the country so that it is not a threat to the United States and other nations.

PRESIDENT: TROOPS IN IRAQ ADEQUATE
Bush said the current number of U.S. troops in Iraq -- 130,000 -- is sufficient but that more foreign troops are needed. He said two multinational divisions, led by Britain and Poland, are serving alongside the United States, and that American commanders have requested a third multinational division.

[On Monday, Britain announced it was sending1,200 additional troopsto Iraq to help stabilize the country.]

Other countries have asked for an explicit U.N. peacekeeping authorization, and Bush said Secretary of State Colin Powell would seek a Security Council resolution to authorize deployment of new forces.

Referring to France, Germany and Russia, Bush said that "not all of our friends agreed with our decision [to] ... remove Saddam Hussein from power. Yet we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties."

Pressed by Democrats and Republicans alike for a pricetag for Iraq, Bush said roughly $66 billion of the $87 billion he will seek from Congress for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is for military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Earlier cost estimates of the terrorism war had ranged between $60 billion and $80 billion.

Of the nearly $66 billion, $51 billion would be for Iraq, $11 billion for Afghanistan and about $200 million for the Horn of Africa, a congressional official knowledgeable about the request said Monday.

CALL FOR ASSISTANCE
While the United States has shouldered the burden of the effort in Iraq, Bush said other nations will be asked to help. He said Powell would meet with representatives of many countries later this month to seek contributions for rebuilding Afghanistan. Next month, Powell will hold a similar funding conference for Iraq.

"Europe, Japan and states in the Middle East all will benefit from the success of freedom in those two countries, and they should contribute to that success," Bush said.

Last week, the Bush administration shifted gears by dropping its resistance to a broader U.N. role in Iraq.

The administration is hoping to secure a new U.N. resolution on Iraq that will clear the way for other countries to contribute troops and cash.

But the initial American proposals were rejected by France and Germany, which opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and want the United States to go further in broadening the U.N.'s role.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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