HOW LONG CAN WE FUND W/O A NEW SUPPLEMENTAL?

Stephen Hadley previously stated that the surge of troops could be completed without requiring any more funding. Now (5/9/07), SECDEF Gates states that we can maintain the surge into July¹:

SEC. GATES: [snip] We will probably -- we -- if we pulled out all the stops, used everything possible available to us, we could probably fund the war into July, but I would tell you the impact on the Department of Defense, in terms of disruption and cancelled contracts and programs, would be huge if we had to do that.


As we've read many times before, the Iraqis troops just aren't quite good enough:

SEN. STEVENS: Can you tell us, are the Iraqi forces coming into place as we thought they would, as this surge goes forward?
GEN. PACE: Sir, the Iraqi forces have come in place, but there's been a mixed quality to the troops that have arrived.


Gates seems to admit that Pres. Fredo's WOT has been a failure:

SEC. GATES: If we were to withdraw, leaving Iraq in chaos, al Qaeda almost certainly would use Anbar province as a place -- as another base from which to plan operations not only inside Iraq, but first of all in the neighborhood and then potentially against the United States. We know that al Qaeda has reestablished itself in the Federally Administered Territories on the western border of Pakistan where they are training new recruits. They have established linkages now in North Africa. And so there are fairly -- al Qaeda has actually expanded, I would say, its organization and its capabilities.




¹Federal News Service
May 9, 2007 Wednesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING
LENGTH: 13061 words
HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE;
SUBJECT: FISCAL YEAR 2008 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BUDGET REQUEST;
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR DANIEL INOUYE (D-HI);
WITNESSES: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES; CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF GENERAL PETER PACE, USMC; DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMPTROLLER GENERAL TINA JONAS;
LOCATION: 192 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.