The budget calls on Congress for supplementary funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the current fiscal year, bringing the 2006-07 out-turn to $165bn ... Then, for 2007-08 - the last full fiscal year of the Bush presidency - the war is projected to consume a further $145bn. The total falls sharply to $50bn in 2008-09 and finally disappears to nothing at all thereafter ... A big push now, sustained throughout next year, and then all scaled down to nothing in the year Mr Bush's successor moves into the White House. It is precisely the same optimistic "one last heave" scenario that Mr Bush offered Americans last month and which sceptical senators from both parties were preparing to reject last night.
Bookmarks