House OK's 'Mission Impossible' fund

House approves additional funds for Afghan war


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133059§ionid=3510203



The US House of Representatives has approved an additional fund aimed at supporting President Barack Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The House did not act in time to get the $33 billion to the troops by July 4 as the Pentagon had requested, after the Democratic leaders procrastinated for weeks over the bill.

The fund will be spent on deploying another 30,000 troops to the battlefields in Afghanistan.

The new funding comes over and above the $130 billion Congress has already approved for the dual wars of Afghanistan and Iraq for this fiscal year.

The bill can only become law if both houses agree. Congress will not be in session again until July 12. It is unclear how the Senate will view the additions the House has made.

The legislation was advanced despite increasing pessimism and unhappiness among lawmakers over the war in Afghanistan.

"Why are we continuing to send our troops into a Mission Impossible?" Reuters quoted Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio as saying.

In a 260-162 vote, the House also defeated a Democratic amendment that would require Obama to set a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.