Pentagon’s 2013 budget proposal underestimates budget spending by 4.7 Percent; Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki calls for the U.S. to speed up the transfer of weapons to Iraq
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    • According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, in its 2013 budget proposal, the Pentagon has underestimated how much its five-year spending plan will cost by $123 billion, or 4.7 percent. To reach its conclusions, CBO assumed Congress would undo many of the Pentagon’s budget-cutting proposals. However, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said at a July 12 briefing, “CBO’s analysis makes clear that if Congress blocks proposals to achieve cost savings contained in the department’s 2013 budget, particularly efforts to address skyrocketing personnel costs, we will risk violating the strict spending caps that Congress itself imposed on the department in the Budget Control Act.” 1

    In another development, according to reports, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on July 15, 2012 called for the U.S. to speed up the transfer of weapons to Iraq, which lacks the ability to defend its airspace or borders, six months after American troops withdrew. The Iraqi premier also pointedly said during a meeting with Gen. James Mattis, the visiting head of U.S. Central Command, that only the central government would decide which arms purchases would be made, in an apparent swipe at Kurdish complaints over the acquisition of F-16 warplanes. “His excellency called for the acceleration of equipping the army, in a way that makes it able to defend Iraq, and its sovereignty and independence,” a statement issued by the premier’s office said.2

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