Rumsfeld defends Iraq policy against Democratic attacks

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday deflected a barrage of attacks on President Bush's post-war planning effort in Iraq and his inability to garner international support for that country's security and reconstruction.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing to consider Bush's $87 billion Iraq supplemental funding request, Appropriations ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., criticized the administration's comparison of the U.S. occupation in Iraq to the post-World War II Marshall Plan. "The Marshall Plan was not presented to Congress for its rubber-stamp approval," Byrd said. "It was a comprehensive, bipartisan strategy developed after extensive consideration to provide $13.3 billion to 16 countries over four years to aid in reconstruction."

That amount would equal roughly $90 billion in current dollars, said Rumsfeld, who was joined at the hearing by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers; Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, and Dov Zahkeim, the Pentagon's comptroller.

Sen. Ernest (Fritz) Hollings, D-S.C., pounded the president for his unilateral approach to the war and called the U.S.-led occupation of post-conflict Iraq "a political flop." Hollings added that while "Iraq was a tremendous military victory ... thus far it is a political failure." He said the United Nations feels the president's unilateral decision to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was "an assault on their principles, as well as an assault on Iraq."

Hollings also said the $87 billion Iraq supplemental is not about money but manpower. "If [Iraq] had a constitution this afternoon and an assembly and everything else-they'd still be blowing up each other there for years on end," said Hollings, who will retire next year. "I'm looking to this time September next year and it's not going to fly having a majority of reserves and the [National] Guard on duty in Iraq."

Senate Republicans, for the most part, showed strong support for the president's supplemental request, although some questioned the high cost to the United States of continued efforts there. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., commended the execution of military operations in Iraq, but asked whether the administration would consider loans from international lending firms to relieve some of the financial burden of rebuilding.

"Is there some way we can offset this request in loans or IMF or World Bank?" Specter asked. He added that countries owed a debt "expended by a tyrant" should not expect to be repaid. "We're starting anew" in Iraq, he said.