Defense Secretary Robert Gates said success in Iraq and Afghanistan has “moved to the top’’ of the Pentagon’s priority list.
“We now recognize that America’s ability to deal with threats for years to come will depend importantly on our success in the current conflicts,’’ Gates told reporters yesterday.
The government has already shelled out a combined $1 trillion since 2001 for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama’s $192 billion war budget is significantly less than the $245 billion request made in 2007 by President George W. Bush, after announcing that more than 20,000 combat troops would be sent to Baghdad.
Congress was expected to endorse the budget plan even though several antiwar Democrats oppose the troop buildup and others are looking for ways to lessen the war’s burden on the nation’s deficit.
Some lawmakers have proposed a special “war tax’’ to cover the costs, while Republicans have suggested taking money from Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package.
Gates said yesterday that he was replacing Major General David Heinz of the Marine Corps - the general in charge of the Pentagon’s largest weapons program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - and withholding $614 million in award fees from the contractor, Lockheed Martin, the New York Times reported. A Pentagon review team has projected billions of dollars in cost overruns on the plane, and Gates said that the company must cover some of the extra costs.
In a statement released yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, suggested savings could be found in the Pentagon’s budget.
“Curbing military contractors’ wasteful practices must be part of our efforts to restore accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline to the federal budget,’’ she said.
Gates said the Defense Department has already scrubbed its spending plan for savings “in a sober and clear-eyed way.’’
