US President Obama requests $8.8 billion to fight against ISIS
News, US February 3, 2015 1 Comment on US President Obama requests $8.8 billion to fight against ISISUS President Barack Obama has requested $8.8 billion to fund the fight against the ISIS terrorist group in his fiscal 2016 budget.
Documents released on Monday showed that a total of $5.3 billion is allocated for the Defense Department, including money for US airstrikes, and $3.5 billion for the State Department.
The funds are part of the White House’s $58 billion request to fight foreign wars, officially known as Overseas Contingency Operations.
“ISIL poses an immediate threat to Iraq, Syria, and American allies and partners throughout the region as it seeks to overthrow governments, control territory, terrorize local populations, and attack the United States and coalition partners throughout the world,” Obama’s budget request says.
“The on-going conflict in Syria also continues to threaten regional stability and has displaced over 10 million people,” it adds.
The State Department has been leading US efforts to establish a coalition of some Middle Eastern and Western countries against ISIS.
Deputy Secretary of State for Management Heather Higginbottom said the money would “strengthen regional partners… provide humanitarian assistance and strengthen Syria’s moderate opposition.”
The funds would also boost “collaboration with coalition partners to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL,” she added.
The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control in Syria and Iraq.
They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.
The US military says it planning to deploy about 1,000 troops to train “moderate” militants in Syria to combat ISIS terrorists as well as the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Pentagon announced last month that the training is expected to begin in the “early spring” and will take place in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.
Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.
US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since early August. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.
The US-led coalition has done little to stop ISIS’s advances in parts of Syria and Iraq.
Some analysts have criticized the US-led aerial military campaigns in Iraq and Syria, saying the strikes are meant to destroy the Arab countries’ infrastructures.
GJH/GJH
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