Bush Plans to Cut Iraq Soldiers' Pay

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Bush administration is planning on cutting the pay of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by $225 per month — $75 per month in "iminent danger pay" and a $150-per-month family separation allowance.

60 American soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq since President Bush declared on May 1 that combat in Iraq had ended.

Is the pay cut a punishment for soldiers' failure to achieve their objectives? Josh Marshall has found an intriguing item in the Gulf Daily News (published in Bahrain) reporting that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, addressing the Asia Society in Sydney, Australia, declared that US troops would not leave Iraq until weapons of mass destruction were found.

This places additional pressure on homesick troops, who have had their return home delayed multiple times, to finds something — anything! — that might be considered an Iraqi weapon of mass destruction.