by Charles Hoskinson

KICKING THE LOBBYING UP A NOTCH – In a letter Monday to Sens. McCain and Graham, Panetta detailed what would happen if the debt-reduction supercommittee failed to do its job, triggering deep defense cuts. Here are some highlights:

— The U.S. ground force would be the smallest since 1940 and the Navy would shrink to the size it was at the beginning of World War I. DOD’s civilian workforce would be the smallest in its history.

— The F-35 JSF and strategic bomber programs would face cancellation, along with the LCS, the Army’s ground combat vehicle and helicopter modernization programs. The ground-based leg of the nuclear triad would face elimination, as well as the European missile defense shield.

“UNFORTUNATELY, WHILE LARGE CUTS are being imposed, the threats to national security would not be reduced. As a result, we would have to formulate a new security strategy that accepted substantial risk of not meeting our defense needs,” Panetta wrote. “A sequestration budget is not one that I could recommend.”

YOU CAN READ THE LETTER HERE: http://politi.co/vVvxhq

ANOTHER LETTER SIGNED BY NINE RETIRED USAF GENERALS to Rep. Randy Forbes, chairman of the HASC Readiness Subcommittee, urges lawmakers to keep in mind that the Air Force needs the F-35 and other modernization programs because its fleet is rapidly wearing out from age and hard use. “The Air Force now finds itself in a situation where another acquisition deferment will lead to the eventual cessation of key missions,” the generals wrote. See their letter here: http://politi.co/uanE0v

ONE OF THE ISSUES SHADOWING WITHDRAWAL PLANS is what to do about key detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq. NPR today reports on one such detainee, Ali Mussa Daqduq, a senior explosives expert captured five years ago whose case is complicated by the fact that he’s tied to Hezbollah and not Al Qaeda. Read the story here: http://n.pr/tUh6Bf

THE HOUSE MEANWHILE continues discussion of a Coast Guard authorization bill that includes a contentious proposal to retire the nation’s last two heavy icebreakers.

THE FUROR OVER A NEW BOOK ON THE BIN LADEN RAID CONTINUES, with the Special Operations Command telling Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press that the book is “a lie. … “It’s just not true,” USSOCOM spokesman Col. Tim Nye said. “It’s not how it happened.” Her story is here: http://bit.ly/rUbrLp
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