Reuters Six months into his tenure as US defense secretary, Leon Panetta has simultaneously been branded an unreasonable defender of Pentagon spending and an ax-man who is forging ahead with dangerous cuts to the American military. In Washington's power corridors, there are plenty of people who make one charge or the other about Panetta — and maybe even both at the same time. But this much is clear: the 73-year-old defense chief is about to leave an indelible mark on America's military, reshaping it after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and President Barack Obama offered a glimpse of that leaner future at a press conference on Thursday. And if Panetta plays his political cards right, he may be able to confound predictions of a second, major wave of defense cuts that he says would turn the Pentagon into a “paper tiger.” Whether he will succeed in holding the line on the defense budget is unclear but analysts say 2012 will likely decide Panetta's legacy as the 23rd secretary of defense. “My bet would be that we'll have a lot of nervous Nellies biting their fingernails from now until December” about whether more cuts are coming, said Brookings Institution analyst Michael O'Hanlon, author of the book “The Wounded Giant: America's Armed Forces in an Age of Austerity.” Panetta, a former White House budget chief once known as something of a deficit hawk, has stunned some Democrats and even created friction with President Barack Obama's White House last summer as he attempted to limit the fallout on the Pentagon from America's budget woes. One US official said Obama had to press Panetta at one point to be more accepting of cuts. “They're on the same page now and have been for a long time,” said a second US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity. “But yes, last summer, there was a disconnect.” Senator John McCain told Reuters he admired Panetta and was “glad that he is where he is.” “When he was head of the budget committee, he had a very different view about spending on defense,” said McCain, who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential election. “But we all live and learn, let's say. It's not where you stand, it's where you sit.” __
