Pentagon, Congress Play Chicken Over Iraq Funds

The Pentagon is threatening as many as 200,000 civilian layoffs by Christmas if war funding isn't approved by Congress, but Dems say there will be no funding until Bush sets withdrawal dates for Iraq. "Both sides are playing a big game of chicken here," a Congressional budget expert told the Washington Post.

The Pentagon claims that the military faces a funding crisis if no bill is approved. "It's an extraordinarily desperate situation," says a spokesman. But analysts say that the Pentagon actually has plenty of flexible cash on hand, and is playing Chicken Little to make the Democrat-controlled Congress look bad. (More Pentagon stories.)