WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis blamed the inability of Congress to deliver an annual defense budget for what he called a shockingly poor state of combat readiness as the United States faces fierce rivals, including what he described as an “urgent and dangerous threat” from North Korea.
Testifying Monday night before the House Armed Services Committee, Mattis took aim at lawmakers for repeatedly approving short-term spending measures that provide too little money and lack the authority the service branches need to prepare their troops for the battlefield. He also faulted Capitol Hill for not repealing a law that strictly limits defense spending even though there is widespread support for doing away with the measure.
Congress has “sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role,” Mattis said. “It has blocked new programs, prevented service growth, stalled industry initiative and placed troops at greater risk.” Despite support from the committee, Mattis said “Congress as a whole has met the present challenge with lassitude, not leadership.”
Mattis, who appeared before the panel with Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said North Korea’s “continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them has increased in pace and scope.” He called Pyongyang’s programs to build weapons of mass destruction “a clear and present danger to all.”
The defense secretary warned that a war with North Korea would be “very, very serious” and be unlike anything the world has seen since 1953 when the Korean war ended. Dunford said the U.S. and its allies would win, but the casualties would be “unlike anything we’ve seen” in decades.