WASHINGTON - A US Senate panel on
Tuesday voted to eliminate funding for a police training program
for Iraq, saying the danger and expense were just too great
after the American troop pullout last year.
"Why keep throwing good money after bad?" asked Senator
Patrick Leahy, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate
appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid.
The panel refused to provide $850 million that President
Barack Obama's administration requested for fiscal year 2013 for
the program, in which U.S. security advisers are training Iraqi
police. It has been seen as a key component of the US civilian
aid mission to Iraq now that U.S. troops are gone.
The subcommittee's decision must still be ratified by the
full Senate and the House of Representatives for it to become
law.