P.J. Crowley: Government Shutdown Would Derail Progress In Libya

Phillip “P.J.” Crowley, the former State Department spokesman who was forced to resign earlier this month over remarks he made questioning the Pentagon’s treatment of suspected leaker Bradley Manning, says steep spending cuts being proposed by Republicans would disable America’s ability to stem multiple crises in the Middle East and North Africa.

In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, Crowley warned against a plan by GOP lawmakers to shred as much as $61 billion from current federal spending levels.

“A budget deal that includes steep reductions in operating funds or assistance that support our global diplomacy and development efforts risks gutting several programs that are relevant to the on-going crisis in the Middle East,” Crowley wrote.

“Budget hawks and Tea Partiers want to push to budget levels back to 2008. But the problem is, we live in 2011. The world has changed.”

Despite the fact that Congress did not vote to authorize military action in Libya, Crowley argued that a government shutdown would threaten to reverse gains made by rebel forces fighting there and elsewhere in that region of the world. Moreover, Republicans, he said, would be to blame for putting humanitarian aid funding on the chopping block.

“A government shutdown would essentially halt our ability to direct resources to meet compelling needs as we have done multiple times over the past four months…For days or weeks, programs considered mission essential will continue to operate, but at reduced levels; a fraction of the workforce will be on the job, and not paid; money already out the door can be spent; but no new commitments can be made until there is a budget.”

Crowley was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. He served as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top spokesman until he resigned on March 13 after telling an audience on the campus of MIT that Manning was being “mistreated” by the Pentagon.

Manning, a 23-year-old Army Private from Potomac, Md., is being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Va. He stands accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to the whistlteblower site WikiLeaks.