Editorial: Priorities askew

Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

White House officials announced Friday that President Bush would not sign the $696 billion defense spending bill approved by Congress this month. Democratic leaders criticized the announcement, saying it came out of nowhere at the last minute and that Bush knuckled under to pressure from Iraq.

The announcement was made because Bush objects to a provision in the bill that could force Iraq to defend itself in U.S. courts against charges brought by Americans.

Many Americans have filed lawsuits claiming they were illegally detained by Saddam Hussein's government before the first Gulf war, and many American veterans of that war claim they were tortured after becoming prisoners of war.

At the time they filed against Iraq, federal law permitted such lawsuits against any foreign government that sponsored terrorism. In 2003, however, following the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam, Bush decreed that Iraq was exempt from that law. Congress followed with a law that supported the decree.

But in the defense spending bill, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., had inserted a provision authorizing the lawsuits to go forward, and for Iraq money deposited in U.S. banks - a reported $25 billion - to be frozen until the courts ruled.

In a joint statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized Bush's announcement, saying the president is "bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks."

A White House spokesman said "the new democratic government of Iraq" can't afford to have its funds entangled in U.S. lawsuits.

Rushing to the defense of Iraq over this provision does more than deny American plaintiffs their day in court. Troops will have their full pay raises delayed, and delays will hamper other urgent military necessities as well, such as improved medical care.

But as we've seen all along from Bush, money for Iraq is the top priority.