Bush urges Congress to pass war funding bill

FORT BRAGG -- President Bush, standing alongside 17,000 paratroopers, urged Congress on Thursday to reach a consensus and pass a war funding bill that does not "tie the hands" of U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill faced votes on funding the troops, Bush welcomed home soldiers who have returned in recent months from the two combat zones.

"We should be able to agree that our troops deserve America's full support," Bush said at an outdoor ceremony on a massive field lined with members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. "And that means that the United States Congress needs to pass a responsible war funding bill that does not tie the hands of our commanders and gives our troops everything they need to complete and accomplish the mission."

Bush's GOP allies in the Senate vote Thursday on both the war funding request and tens of billions of dollars that Democrats want for veterans education and an assortment of domestic programs.

A Wednesday night agreement gave Republicans a clear path to kill numerous domestic programs and pass a "clean" war funding bill as demanded by the president. But doing so will take difficult votes on whether to extend unemployment benefits and expand veterans' education benefits.

In his speech to troops, Bush defended his war policy and said that when it comes to deciding troop levels in Iraq, his message to commanders remains: "You will have all the troops, you will have all the resources you need to win."

Bush's visit to Fort Bragg, his fourth since taking office, coincided with what is known as "All-American Week" at the base. The 82nd's traditional homecoming was canceled last year because nearly the entire division was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year was tough on the 82nd Airborne, which suffered 87 fatalities -- more than in any other year since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

The division's 1st Brigade Combat Team is expected to return from Iraq in July, three months earlier than expected. But the 3rd Brigade Combat Team is being sent back to Iraq later this year.

Bush said Iraq will be a success when it can govern itself, support itself economically and protect its own citizens.

"The capability of the Iraqi security forces is improving. They are winning battles," he said.

He said the Iraqis are shouldering more of the cost of rebuilding, demanding better lives for their families, rejecting violence and passing legislation to pave the way for a stable future.

"While there is a distance to travel, they have come a long way," Bush said.

Bush also was touring the 82nd Airborne Division barracks where a paratrooper's father shot video of substandard conditions, including sewage standing in a bathroom. Division spokesman Maj. Tom Earnhardt said Wednesday that conditions at the barracks have "vastly improved" since the video was taken and posted online.

Ed Frawley of Menomonie, Wis., posted the video online, saying he was disgusted by the conditions that greeted his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, and other members of his company when they returned from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan. The video showed mold, peeling paint, a broken toilet seat and a bathroom drain plugged with sewage.

Once on the Internet, the video spurred a widespread examination of conditions at Army barracks. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren ordered an inspection of 148,000 Army barracks rooms and said the military would spent $248 million on repairs.

Repairs to the barracks in the video began in January but the unit returned home three weeks earlier than expected, and not all of the repairs had been completed, Fort Bragg officials said. They said more than $3 million has been spent on improving barracks since Frawley's video was posted April 24. They say the barracks have been inspected and while there were some indications of mold, it did not indicate a health hazard.

About 150 members of "Gold Star" families, relatives of those killed, joined Bush for the division's review ceremony, which began with four paratroopers with red-white-and-blue chutes landing on a target on the grassy Pike Field and ended with a parade of low-flying helicopters.

Afterward, Bush was helping rededicate the division's global war on terrorism memorial for paratroopers killed in battle since World War II. The memorial is being expanded; there is no more room for the names of the dead on its original granite pillar.

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