Is U.S. sending more troops to Middle East? Hawley accuses Pentagon of double-talk.

'Sen. Josh Hawley grilled a top Pentagon official Thursday about whether the U.S. military is weighing plans to send thousands of additional troops to the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that the Pentagon was considering a plan to deploy an additional 14,000 troops to the Middle East. Hawley, R-Missouri, asked on Twitter Wednesday night whether the Pentagon was preparing for a land war.

Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah disputed the story’s accuracy, but at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee the following day, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood appeared to backtrack.

“We’re always considering and in fact, based on the threat situation in the Middle East, are watching that and as necessary the Secretary of Defense has told me he intends to make changes to our force posture there,” Rood told Hawley.

However, Rood added that no decision has been made about sending an additional 14,000 troops.

Hawley scolded Rood for what he said were contradictory statements from the Pentagon and asked for clarification from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

“I assume that he signed off on the official spokesperson’s comments – direct public comments last night to me – which she repeated over and over again, and you’ve directly contradicted here, this morning, multiple times,” Hawley said. “So I think some clarification is in order and I’d like to have it. I’d like to have it in public. Because the Pentagon has now made multiple contradictory public statements.”

Hawley has become outspoken in recent weeks about his desire to shift the military’s focus away from what he calls “forever wars” in the Middle East and toward the threat of China.

Rood objected to Hawley’s characterization that he had contradicted the Pentagon’s previous statement and said no document existed asking the secretary to approve the deployment of 14,000 troops.'

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