Will Panetta Stave Off Deeper Cuts To The U.S. Military?

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta speaks to the press about the new defense strategy as Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, looks on at the Pentagon, Jan. 5, 2012. DOD photo by Glenn Fawcett

Analysis: Will Panetta Stave Off Deeper Cuts To Military? -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Six months into his tenure as U.S. defense secretary, Leon Panetta has simultaneously been branded an unreasonable defender of Pentagon spending and an ax-man who is forging ahead with dangerous cuts to the American military.

In Washington's power corridors, there are plenty of people who make one charge or the other about Panetta - and maybe even both at the same time.

But this much is clear: the 73-year-old defense chief is about to leave an indelible mark on America's military, reshaping it after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and President Barack Obama offered a glimpse of that leaner future at a press conference on Thursday.

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My Comment: I have trouble seeing how these additional cuts can be avoided, especially since deficits continue around the $1 trillion mark. As I had commented earlier this morning, the priority in deficit cutting is not entitlement programs or the federal bureaucracy, but defense programs. I expect more cuts to continue as the struggle to bring the US deficit under control to continue .... but I expect deficits to continue and the red ink to continue .... especially if interest rates/inflation starts to increase..