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February 15, 2012

Panetta Touts Asia Expansion, Defends Military Budget 
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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appeared before lawmakers on Tuesday
to defend President Obama’s plans to increase the military budget by
lower levels than in previous years. Panetta insisted the United States
will spare no resources in military operations in Asia.

Leon Panetta: "There is nothing like a carrier to be able to allow for
quick deployment in that area and that will give us a great capacity to
be able to show our force structure in the Pacific. In addition to that,
we are going to maintain obviously a military presence, we already have
one in Korea, but we are going to maintain an additional rotational
presence with our marines throughout that area. We have just developed
an agreement with Australia to do a rotational presence there. We are
working with the Philippines on hopefully a similar arrangement there as
well."



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