Iran is next on the US agenda.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the senate on Wednesday that if Iran obtains a nuclear weapons capability, it would trigger an arms race in the Middle East and beyond. “A nuclear-armed Iran with a deliverable weapons system is going to spark an arms race in the Middle East and the greater region.” she said.

Republican Senator Judd Gregg, called Iran a terrorist state and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said preventing a nuclear Iran should take precedence over Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Obama made it clear that he is “committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons with all of the consequences that that would entail. But at the same time we cannot wait on the Palestinian-Israeli efforts regarding peace. So we think they have to proceed simultaneously,”

On Tuesday Obama suggested the United States would pursue tougher sanctions against Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to make progress by the end of this year. The Obama administration, which had been concerned about Pakistan’s willingness to take on Islamic extremists, now believes it is making an “all-out” effort to take back areas recently seized by the Taliban repeatedly stating that more troops are necessary.

The new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan was unveiled in late March. A central focus of the strategy will be the injection of 17,000 new troops in Afghanistan, with an additional 4,000 to train the Afghan security forces. The plan also calls for the increased capability of the Afghans in restoring and maintaining security.

Moreover, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has asked Washington to help bring its forces to a strength of 400,000 in five years, according to MOD chairman of the Public Affairs Office Muhammad Ishaq Payman.

The U.S. military is likely to maintain and may even increase its force of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring, the top American commander, John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, in the region said Tuesday: “If it’s necessary to do that because the military situation on the ground requires that, we’ll do it,” Abizaid said of longer deployments. “If we have to call in more forces because it’s our military judgment that we need more forces, we’ll do it.”

On July 2nd, Obama spoke in Colorado Springs and hit themes of national service, foreign policy, and national security. “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” If history has tought us anything. The United States is preparing for a campain of a magnitude the world has not seen since September 1st 1939.