Panetta: Bigger defense cuts would ‘weaken’ US

WASHINGTON — Large new cuts in defense spend­ing would “ter­ri­bly weaken” U.S. national secu­rity, Defense Sec­re­tary Leon Panetta said Tues­day as he and Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton used a rare joint inter­view to argue that the nation can­not afford to keep play­ing par­ti­san chicken with its finances. Panetta expressed opti­mism about progress by American-led forces against the Tal­iban in Afghanistan and by NATO forces in sup­port of anti-government rebels in Libya. He cited those con­flicts as exam­ples of why severe cuts to spend­ing on defense and diplo­macy would be dangerous.