Obama Seeking War Funding

(AP) President Barack Obama was expected to send Congress a request Thursday for $83.4 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for troop funding that he voted against when he was a senator and George W. Bush was president.

Obama's request would push the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to almost $1 trillion. The money would finance military operations into the latter months of this year.

Congressional aides briefed on the request revealed its overall cost on condition of anonymity since the briefing was private.

Once passed by Congress, the money would bring the total amount approved for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, to about $950 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Obama's request would push the amount approved for 2009 to about $150 billion, a drop from the $171 billion cost incurred in 2007 and the $188 billion approved for 2008, when former President George W. Bush increased the tempo of military operations in a generally successful effort to quell an Iraqi insurgency.

Budget office spokesman Tom Gavin said the White House would send an official request to Congress late Thursday.

Obama was a harsh critic of the Iraq war as a candidate. He opposed a war funding bill in 2007 after Bush used a veto to force Congress to remove a withdrawal timeline from a $99 billion war funding measure. - CBS News Story