Some folks thought that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, having once been head of the Office of Management and Budget, would support real reductions in military spending. Think again! Like Caspar Weinberger, who followed a similar career path and served under Ronald Reagan, Secretary Panetta now has become a firm defender of a bloated budget that has doubled over the last decade.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Thursday he would not accept large military cutbacks under a debt deal, charging the move would weaken the United States faced with rising powers.
Panetta, holding his first formal news conference since taking charge of the Pentagon a month ago, launched a pre-emptive strike as a special committee prepares to slash spending under a last-ditch deal to avert a US debt default.
Panetta, a veteran Democratic Party dealmaker who was once in charge of budgets, said that "God willing" the process would not trigger sweeping cuts under which the Pentagon could lose another $600 billion.
Such cuts "I believe would do real damage to our security, our troops and their families and our military's ability to protect the nation," Panetta said.
Just think about what the world would look like if the U.S. wasn't bombing Libya, trying to remake Afghanistan, and permanently occupying Iraq. Just imagine a world if the Europeans defending themselves, South Korea confronted the North, and Japan protected itself. Horrors, horrors! How would we live without the American Empire doing everything every where?
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