Special to WorldTribune.com from east-asia-intel.com

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress last week that U.S. military strategy under budget cuts will lead to a lessening of emphasis in areas of the world where Al Qaida is emerging as a growing threat.

Panetta said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Oct. 13 that smaller forces after cutbacks will mean U.S. forces must be more agile. “We want it to be deployable. We think we have to have multimission kind of weapon systems to help support that force,” he said.

Priorities for future force structure will be designed to counter China, he said, and as a result areas of the world will not be covered.

“If we decide that we’ve got to maintain our force structure presence in the Pacific in order to deal with China and China’s expanding role in that part of the world, and because of the other issues that exist, obviously, in that very sensitive part of the world, and if we decide that the Middle East is also a very important area where we have to maintain a presence as well, then just by virtue of the numbers that we’re dealing with, we will probably have to reduce our presence elsewhere, presence perhaps in Latin America, presence in Africa,” Panetta said.

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  Al Qaida, China, House Armed Services Committee, Panetta: Combination of China’s expansion and budget cuts will open gaps in U.S. force structure, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta