Remember the war that Congress and the President sent us into in Iraq? You know, the one that Congress has voted time and time again not to stop because of the successes we’re having over there and the catastrophe that an ill-timed pullout would create. Now that they’re playing politics with the money we need to fight the war, the Pentagon is having to take drastic measures:

The Pentagon plans to shift $9.7 billion of its overall budget to pay for war operations but warned on Wednesday it will run out of money if the U.S. Congress does not approve more funding by mid-July.

The Defense Department, with major operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, sent Congress requests to transfer $5.7 billion to the Army’s personnel account from the personnel accounts of other branches of the U.S. armed services.

It also asked Congress for permission to move $4 billion from the services’ operations and maintenance accounts to the Army and U.S. Special Operations Command, whose troops train local security forces and conduct counterterrorism missions. …

“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that this provides us a whole lot,” [department spokesman Bryan Whitman] said.

“This $9.7 billion reprogramming only buys another few weeks of operations until the department as a whole will then run out of critical funding.” …

Meanwhile, the Pentagon warns it will run out of funds and, as it did last year, sends notices to commanders to prepare for cuts. Those moves are seen by some Democrats as scare tactics. …

Read the rest here.