US President George W. Bush signed a record US$401.3-billion defense bill on Monday that includes a 4.15-percent raise for troops as the Iraq occupation puts increasing strain on soldiers and their families.
"In this time of war, our military is facing greater sacrifice," Bush said as he signed the legislation in a ceremony at the Pentagon.
"Your men and women in uniform are facing longer separations. Your families are feeling great pride and sometimes they worry," he said.
Since Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1, 185 soldiers have died as guerrilla attacks have escalated. The administration has extended military deployments in Iraq to a full year and is mustering tens of thousands of regular and reserve troops for rotation into Iraq next year.
Besides raising military wages, the defense authorization bill for fiscal 2004 will continue US$225 per month in imminent danger pay and US$250 in a monthly family separation allowance for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, including tens of thousands of reserve and national guard troops.
The Pentagon in August said it had considered altering the compensation plan for soldiers in the two countries, but denied in the face of criticism that it intended to cut their pay.
Last year's defense authorization bill totaled US$393 billion and included a 4.1-percent raise for troops.
This year's bill clears the way for the Air Force to acquire 100 Boeing BA.N refueling aircraft, expands veterans' benefits and allows research on new types of nuclear weapons.
It also includes US$9.1 billion for ballistic missile defense and US$12 billion for the purchase of Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force fighters as well as further development of a Joint Strike Fighter program.
Separate legislation is needed to actually spend the money authorized by the bill that Bush signed.
After he signed the measure, Bush left Washington for Fort Carson, Colorado, to hold a rare meeting with families of US troops who have died in Iraq. In a speech to troops at the base, he thanked the families of fallen soldiers and said "our prayers are with you."
Bush has come under increasing criticism for not attending any funerals of soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq and for barring media coverage of the return of dead service members to the US.
Retired General Wesley Clark, a candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination, accused Bush of "the kind of cover-up tactics we saw during Vietnam."
White House aides say Bush has met privately with families of war casualties and writes letters to the families of each soldier who has died.
In Senate testimony last week, Pentagon officials acknowledged reports of morale problems in some units serving in Iraq, and said the Army Reserve had fallen short of its goals for re-enlisting existing members.
"The longer we operate at the tempos we have, the greater the challenge will be in this," said Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker.
Longer-than-expected call-ups have also pulled many reservists away from regular jobs and fueled discontent among families.
Bush said US troops were "standing between our country and grave danger."
"You're standing for order and hope and democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. You're standing up for the security of all free nations, and for the advance of freedom," he told the military audience at the Pentagon.
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS