Ernie Elliot
The Enquirer
After the International Atomic Energy Agency dropped the bombshell news that Iran has accelerated its drive to build a nuclear weapon, you’d expect leaders on Capitol Hill to hold a flurry of hearings on how to counter the threat.
Instead, congressional hearing rooms have been booked solid to discuss how to slash national security spending. Budget cuts dominate the debate, while the prospect of a nuclear Iran barely raises eyebrows.
The defense cuts proposed under the debt ceiling deal would leave the U.S. with far fewer options for confronting an Iran armed with the bomb. Congress has already cut $450 billion from the Pentagon budget. And last year Congress failed to reach a new budget agreement, triggering an additional $600 billion in automatic cuts that, absurdly, will affect all Pentagon programs equally, cutting armored vehicles as well as janitorial services. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called the defense cuts totaling one trillion dollars a “doomsday mechanism” for our national security.
Panetta has predicted that half of these cuts would come out of funding to replace critical equipment as well as research and development into new technologies to keep us safe. Accounting for only 27 percent of all defense spending, this investment is at an historical low, at just over one percent of GDP. Shrinking it further will cut deeply into our national defense capabilities.
These unprecedented cuts could hamper intelligence operations by constraining funding for unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and satellites we need to locate terrorists and keep an eye on Iran. They would also weaken our ability to carry out air strikes and humanitarian missions by slashing funding to replace fighter jets, bombers, and cargo aircraft that are older than at any time in its history. The cuts could also slow developments to our missile defenses that leaders on both sides of the aisle say are necessary to defend against the long-range nuclear ballistic missiles that experts say countries like Iran are developing to threaten the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S.
The report on Iran’s accelerating nuclear program comes on the heels of news that the country has built underground silos that experts say can protect long-range ballistic missiles from air strikes. And Iran has launched several satellites into space on the back of rockets that can easily be converted to intercontinental ballistic missiles. And we already know that the Iranian regime is willing to go to extraordinary and violent lengths to attack America, coordinating deadly militia attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq and reportedly behind a recent plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.
North Korea has tested several nuclear weapons, starting in 2006. It has also flight-tested several Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles, said to be capable of hitting Alaska or California with a nuclear payload.
Hundreds of simulations and dozens of flight tests have proved that the U.S.’s current missile defenses are robust enough to defend against current threats. But experts say that the systems need continual upgrades to stay ahead of the ballistic missile technology rogue nations are developing in secret. Deep budget cuts could give our enemies just the time they need to surprise us with a technological leap.
Worse, these cuts are being debated in public, and the world – including Iran and North Korea – is watching. Whatever the reality, they may be tempted to act against the U.S. if they are convinced we are lowering our defenses enough to give them a chance at success.
The report on Iran’s race to the bomb is a much-needed reminder of the dangerous world. Let’s hope Congress takes the opportunity to roll back some of these drastic defense cuts and send the right message to those who would threaten the nation.
