Plenty of resources, but even greater demand.

• Author: Farrell, Lawrence P., Jr.
• Position: PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE

The politics of military spending have reached fever pitch as Congress attempts to pass the Defense Department's fiscal year 2008 budget and weighs massive war spending requests.

The debate over the budget, much like last year's deliberations, has been overpowered by the politics of the war in Iraq, including various legislative efforts to mandate deadlines for troop withdrawals and shorten deployments.

These are legitimate issues for Congress to deliberate, but they should not be an excuse for delaying the appropriation of critical funding that the military services need, not just to fight the war, but also to sustain day-to-day operations at home and around the world.

In addition to President Bush's defense budget request of $483 billion for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, lawmakers are mulling over a record-high $190 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are unprecedented levels of defense spending. But Congress must also recognize that the demand for resources has never been higher. It also must consider that the longer it takes to appropriate the funds, the more difficult it gets for the services--particularly the Army and the Marine Corps--to do their jobs. It is worth recalling that last year, the Army had to "cash flow" war operations for several months--and even borrow funds from the Air Force--until Congress got around to passing an emergency request.

Once again, the military services are being forced to shuffle resources around to keep things running in the absence of fiscal 2008 budget and war appropriations. Not only does this create accounting nightmares for the services but it also disrupts important activities, such as training and temporary-duty travel, which cannot be easily restored months later.

There has to be a timely resolution of these budget matters.

Additionally, Congress must find a way to set aside the contentious and politically charged issues that surround the Iraq war and begin to think about the larger financial challenges that confront the Defense Department.

Notwithstanding the substantial increases seen in defense budgets since 2001, expenditures seem to grow at an even faster pace. And even if a troop drawdown began in the near future, the war's strain on the budget will continue for years after U.S. forces leave Iraq.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total cost of ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan between now and 2017--depending on...