Top Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee want to make sure that adequate spending in the fiscal 2013 defense budget goes to weapons and programs that could be used in a war with Iran.
Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., is leading the effort,
The Hill reports. And he said Tuesday that it won’t be abandoned just because it raises the heat in an already tense relationship between the United States and the rogue Mideast nation.
“We are doing what we can to make sure [the United States] is protected ... and that is what we are going to do,” McKeon told reporters during a briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, according to The Hill.
Iran’s aggressive rhetoric, including a threat to block oil exports from the Persian Gulf, and its refusal to open its nuclear program to international monitoring represents “reason [enough] to be concerned” about a potential war between Iran and the United States or its allies, such as Israel, Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday.
Turner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces panel, said Iran’s recent actions show it could be preparing for armed conflict. “Perhaps we should believe them,” he said, The Hill reported.
McKeon and Turner didn’t specify what weapons or programs they seek to fund. But committee spokesman Claude Chafin said the Pentagon will soon submit its annual priorities list to the committee.
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