President Bush, asking Congress for $74.7 billion to pay for six months of combat, said Tuesday that coalition forces are "on a steady advance" in Iraq but said he could not predict how long the war will last.
"We cannot know the duration of this war, yet we know its outcome: We will prevail," Bush, commander in chief of 300,000 troops in the Persian Gulf, told U.S. military personnel at the Pentagon.
"The Iraq regime will be disarmed. The Iraq regime will be ended. The Iraq people will be free and our world will be more secure and peaceful," he said. "Americans can be confident in the people who wear our nation's uniforms," he said.
The bulk of the request, $62.6 billion, will support U.S. troops both in Iraq and other operations related to the broader war on terrorism, the White House said. The rest of the money will go to humanitarian assistance in Iraq, other foreign aid and homeland defense programs in the United States.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has contacted the United States and Iraq with a peace proposal, the kingdom's foreign minister told reporters Tuesday. He said he was still awaiting a response.
Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, asked at a news conference whether Saudi Arabia had been in direct contact with the United States and Iraq in an effort to end the war, said: "We have made the proposal and we are waiting for a possible response." He did not describe the proposal.
"I don't want to say we were rebuffed because we were not rebuffed, but nor were we given authorization that they're going with it," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
