United States Foreign Aid

The war in the Persian Gulf is rapidly drawing to a close. American and coalition troops are liberating Kuwait and trouncing the Iraqi Republican Guard. Now comes the hard part: Getting U.S. allies to help pay for the short but expensive conflict. With the war all but won after just a few days of ground fighting, anger and frustration are rapidly mounting in Congress over the failure of many of the allies to ante up the cash they pledged.

Contributions from six allied nations will cover 88% of the nearly $11.1 billion spent by the United States during 1990 on the Persian Gulf military buildup, the White House said Wednesday. Of the total U.S. costs incurred last year, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pledged to contribute a combined 62%; Germany, Japan and Korea have committed to paying nearly 26%. According to the White House, the net cost to the United States of the 1990 buildup will be $1.

The House on Thursday ignored President Bush's denunciation of "pork barrel" military projects as it overwhelmingly approved two spending bills authorizing nearly $47 billion for Operation Desert Storm and other emergency military and domestic needs. And in a thinly veiled ultimatum to U.S. allies who have not delivered on $38.7 billion in pledges to defray the costs of the war, the House said they should pay up by April 15 or invite unspecified "appropriate action" by Congress.

This is "not a time to gloat," President Bush said in telling the nation that the war was over, "but it is a time of pride--pride in our troops, pride in our friends who stood with us during the crisis." He might have added a time of determination too. For Americans must now turn to economic challenges at home--the recession and, beyond it, the threat of slow economic growth and a battle for standards of living that used to be a birthright.

Allied contributions to the Gulf War effort, in millions of dollars Amount Cash In-Kind* Still Promised Received Received Owed Saudi Arabia $16,839 $4,457 $1,566 $10,816 Kuwait 16,006 3,500 10 12,496 Japan 10,740 866 457 9,417 Germany 6,572 2,432 531 3,609 United Arab Emirates 3,000 870 140 1,990 Korea 385 50 21 314 Others 3 0 3 0 Total $53,545 $12,175 $2,728 $38,642 *In-kind contributions are donations of goods and services such as weapons, fuel, food and transportation Source: Office

Sending a strong, dunning message to several Arab allies, the Senate voted 98 to 1 on Tuesday to ban arms sales to nations that fail to make good on multibillion-dollar pledges to defray costs incurred by the United States in the Persian Gulf War. The extraordinary prohibition was included in an Operation Desert Storm money bill that authorizes expenditures of $42.6 billion, most of which is supposed to be financed by allied contributions.

The United States and its allies will not launch a ground attack against Iraqi positions in Kuwait until "absolutely certain that we have gained everything we can from the air campaign," Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Sunday. Although roughly half a million U.S. troops will be "combat ready" before the end of February, "there is no reason for us to rush into a ground conflict that would mean unnecessary American and allied casualties," Cheney said.

Two influential Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require the Bush Administration to report monthly on the overall cost of the Persian Gulf War and the amount of contributions from Japan, West Germany, Saudi Arabia and other allies. Reps. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) sponsored the legislation and said they hope to get backing of the Democratic leadership for its swift approval.

The Bush Administration is going to extraordinary lengths to avoid telling Congress how high the costs of Operation Desert Shield will be, how much U.S. allies will pay and how the shortfall will be made up. By virtually all independent estimates, the financial contributions pledged by allies such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan and Germany are turning out to be much smaller in comparison to total U.S. costs than Bush Administration officials expected four months ago.

The House killed a two-year, $25-billion foreign aid bill, but the 262-159 vote was largely symbolic since Congress last week approved a stopgap bill that continues foreign aid through March. It was clear, however, that lawmakers see unemployment and recession as the main issues for Americans. "I have a problem with appropriating $2 billion to Egypt and $3 billion to Israel," Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) said. "Let's take care of some of the problems we have at home first." Rep. Gerald B. H.