Legislation Bans Funding for Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
For immediate release - September 29, 2006
Washington... President Bush today signed legislation that bars funding to construct permanent military bases in Iraq, and states definitively that it is the policy of the United States government not to exercise control over Iraq’s petroleum resources. The new legislative language, contained in the military appropriations bill signed by president Bush today, marks the first time the government has ruled out an indefinite military presence in Iraq, as the administration had previously worked to retain the option of establishing permanent bases.
“The perception that the U.S. military plans to stay in Iraq indefinitely has fueled the insurgency and undermined the stability of the Iraqi government,” said Ruth Flower, legislative director for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). “This legislation is an important first step in changing the failed U.S. policy in Iraq.”
The 63-year-old Quaker lobby, FCNL, has been working with members of Congress on this policy since January 2005. Reps. Barbara Lee (CA) and Tom Allen (ME) advanced stand-alone bills to bar permanent bases in 2005, and in 2006 the House and the Senate approved similar amendments banning permanent bases as part of an emergency supplemental spending bill. The administration persuaded leaders in the House and Senate to strip out the “no permanent bases” language out of the emergency supplemental during conference committee negotiation.
But when similar language was attached to the FY07 military appropriations bill (H.R. 5631) in the Senate, negotiators from the House and Senate held firm. The final version of military appropriations bill prohibits the Pentagon from spending money to establish military installations or bases in Iraq. Both houses of Congress approved the bill last week.
While we at FCNL believe this declaration of policy is an important step toward changing U.S. policy in Iraq, we are concerned that the military appropriations bill also includes an additional $70 billion in funding for the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The U.S. government’s own National Intelligence Estimate confirms what we have been hearing from people in Iraq for more than a year – that the U.S. presence in Iraq has fueled the development of a new generation of violent radical groups and has made the overall problem of terrorism worse,” said Flower. War is not the answer.
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The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
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