Potential action against Syria reignites U.S. budget concerns
But some U.S. lawmakers worry a strike against Syria could trigger a broader conflict.
They are using that argument as another reason to avert more than $500 billion in military spending cuts facing the Pentagon over the next decade under the process known as "sequestration," on top of $487 billion in cuts that were already planned.
"We cannot keep asking the military to perform mission after mission with sequestration and military cuts hanging over their heads," Republican Buck McKeon, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told CNN on Monday.
Top military leaders have repeatedly warned lawmakers that further cuts will jeopardize the U.S. military's readiness to respond to crises like the one now playing out over Syria's suspected use of chemical weapons against its own citizens.
Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute consultants' group, said the administration's proposed limited strike on Syria could buoy shares in major weapons makers such as missile maker Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin, which builds the Aegis combat system used on Navy ships.
Weapons makers are looking to foreign military sales and commercial markets to offset the downturn in U.S. military spending, but a new overseas conflict could increase demand for expendable items such as Raytheon's Tomahawk missiles.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/02/syria-crisis-usa-budget-idUSL2N0GY12P20130902?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologySector&rpc=43
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