Article Posted on : - Aug 05, 2011

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, focused on debt reduction issues during a press conference at the Pentagon, Aug. 4, 2011. It was Panetta's first Pentagon press conference since he was sworn in as defense secretary July 1. Photo: US DoD.

WASHINGTON (PTI): Observing that budgetary cuts announced under debt-ceiling deal has already made it tough for the Pentagon, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned that further cutbacks would damage national security.

"We're already taking our share of the discretionary cuts as part of this debt-ceiling agreement, and those are going to be tough enough. But I think anything beyond that would damage our national defence," Panetta said at his maiden Pentagon news conference at as the Defence Secretary.

"When you look at national security, I think you have to look at the broader context," he said.

Panetta said: "National security is not just dependent on a defence budget. It's also dependent on the quality of life in this country, which involves the domestic side of the budget. It's also dependent on the State Department budget and their ability to conduct diplomacy abroad."

"I would hope that the leadership in the Congress will take the time to look at the areas that they should be looking at if they're serious about dealing with the deficit."

Panetta said it is fair to say that the goal is to design a defence system that will meet the threats not only of the present but also of the future.

"There are three areas we absolutely have to protect.

We have to protect our core national security interests, we've got to be able to provide the best military in the world, and we cannot break faith with the troops and their families.

Those are the key elements that have to be part of what we decide."

The Defence Secretary exuded confidence that the current budgetary cuts is manageable and that the Pentagon can achieve it in a way that will protect its national defence.

"I'm not even beginning to consider what would happen with regards to sequestration. All I know is that from the review we've been doing for what we have to deal with in these numbers, that anything that doubles that would be disastrous to the defence budget," he said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the growing national debt remains the single biggest threat to America’s national security. "The military exists to eliminate or mitigate security threats. So we will do our part in this regard, but we cannot allow that effort to go so far and cut so deep that it jeopardizes our ability to deal with the other very real and very serious threats we face around the world."

"We allow it to beak the all-volunteer force upon, whose backs we place the burden of national defence," he said.

Panetta said Americans expect that "we will always protect our core national security interests while meeting reasonable savings targets. As I've said before, we do not have to choose between fiscal discipline and national security."

"I recognise the resource limitations we face as a result of the size of the deficits that confront this country.

I also recognize the Department of defence has responsibility to do its part in dealing with that, and we will do so," he said.