Biden: Media Overplaying Violence In Iraq

During a meeting in Baghdad this morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden touted the security condition of the war-torn nation.

“Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is things are still very much different,” he said. “Things are much safer.”

Biden referred to a series of attacks last Wednesday that killed 55 Iraqi civilians in different parts of the country as “dismal.”

The Vice President’s visit to Iraq, his fifth since taking office, purposely coincides with the withdrawal of the last U.S. combat brigade from there. The U.S. now has a total of 50,000 troops in Iraq…

Obama To Speak To Veterans On End of Iraq Combat Ops

President Obama will discuss the end of combat operations in Iraq during a speech to the organization Disabled American Veterans today in Atlanta.  Combat missions in Iraq end on August 31, but Obama will say that troops stationed there will still “face likely danger.”  The speech marks the scaling back of US prescense in one theater of operations, Iraq, and a sharp increase in another, Afghanistan.

by Philip Bunnell

House Will Vote On War Supplemental Today

Later today, the House is expcted to hold debate on a $59 billion piece of legislation that would provide funding to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 would also “provide $24 billion to help keep teachers, police, and firefighters employed during the recession, $13 billion to Vietnam War veterans that have been exposed to Agent Orange, $2.8 billion for Haiti relief, $5.7 billion for PELL grants, $677 million to strengthen the border, $275 million for the Gulf oil spill, and $725 million to offset other needs,” according to OpenCongress.

The Senate passed its version of the appropriations bill earlier this summer, yet struck the nearly $23 billion in domestic spending. It remains to be seen whether the House will vote to pass the slimmed-down Senate version, or whether it will pass the more expensive version, which would then go back to the Senate…