Pentagon Can’t Afford Syria Operation; Must Seek Additional Funds.

Pentagon Can’t Afford Syria Operation; Must Seek Additional Funds.HT:Freebeacon.com

The U.S. military, struggling after defense cuts of tens of billions of dollars, will be unable to pay for attacks on Syria from current operating funds and must seek additional money from Congress, according to congressional aides.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said on Friday he has not made a final decision on a military strike against Syria. He sought to play down both the scope and duration of the anticipated punitive missile and bombing campaign.
“As you’ve seen, today we’ve released our unclassified assessment detailing with high confidence that the Syrian regime carried out a chemical weapons attack that killed well over a thousand people, including hundreds of children,” Obama said.
The president said the use of the deadly weapons had violated international “norms” and that action was needed to prevent the further use of the arms.
The costs of planned Syria strikes using cruise missile ships currently deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean were not disclosed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several other high-ranking administration officials during a telephone briefing Thursday night for congressional leaders.

However, estimates of the limited-duration strike are expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.“The secretary indicated that the administration would consult with Congress on the cost of exercising a potential military option, but specific dollar amounts weren’t discussed,” a senior defense official when asked about the funding shortfalls.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in a July 19 letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, that larger-scale military operations would cost hundreds of millions or billions, depending on the number of forces and the duration of the operations.