WASHINGTON — A public dispute this week over how much the United States will pay Turkey to help it weather a war in Iraq has highlighted the fact that President Bush is having to buy support for his policies toward Saddam Hussein.
U.S. diplomats are negotiating deals totaling billions of dollars with Turkey and others, including Israel, Jordan and Egypt, to defray the costs of war or cement official backing for American policy in nations where it is politically unpopular.
Turkey, which suffered an economic disaster from the 1991 war in neighboring Iraq, is asking for as much as $30 billion in aid this time, much of it in loan guarantees that cost taxpayers little. As bargaining power, it is withholding its approval for the United States to station troops in Turkey to open a crucial second front against Iraq.
The Bush administration has offered $6 billion in grants and $20 billion in loan guarantees.
Simultaneously, a high-level Israeli delegation is in Washington hoping to wrap up an agreement on a package of aid to boost Israel’s military and defray costs from the war on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
Israel, already the No. 1 recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, is asking for roughly $4 billion in additional military aid over the next two to three years, plus $8 billion in loan guarantees.
Jordan, which neighbors Iraq and could face economic dislocation and an influx of refugees, has requested $1 billion.
And Egypt, another top recipient of U.S. aid, recently asked for more assistance, too. It fears a sharp drop in tourism, a mainstay of its economy, from a new war in the Middle East.
None of the money has been requested by the Bush administration, much less approved by Congress. Lawmakers are beginning to ask questions about the foreign assistance bill they may be handed.
“What commitments has the administration made to some of our allies that could be very expensive in the future?” Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., asked Secretary of State Colin Powell during a House Budget Committee hearing last week.
— Warren P. Strobel, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
