Leon Panetta

And you know my view, talking with the President was--if I brought it to the point where we had evidence that they are developing an atomic weapon, I think the President is serious that he is not going to allow that to happen.

Too often foreign-policy debates in America focus on issues such as how much military power should be deployed to the Middle East, whether the U.S. should provide arms to the Ukrainians, or what tougher economic sanctions should be imposed…

Ignored is a powerful nonlethal tool, America's abundance of oil and natural gas.

The moment has come for the U.S. to deploy its oil and gas in support of its security interests around the world.

Breaking that compromises, he says, compromises the military's ability to go after enemies.

You got to basically go after people and make them understand what they have to do, and that means you create a war room, you go after votes, you have to push people.

He's made decision to put troops on the ground in Iraq to try to help the security forces, he's made the decision to arm and train rebel forces in Syria, and he's made the decision to conduct air attacks.

The president very clearly should have said you have crossed that red line, we're not going to allow that to happen.

I do think that if we had had a presence there, it might not have created the kind of vacuum that we saw develop in Iraq.

That's what President Obama is dealing with tonight.

What I'm saying is that Maliki was the kind of leader that you had to constantly put pressure on to direct him in the right direction.

Our purpose is to ensure that the mission is carried out by the best qualified and the most capable servicemembers, regardless of gender and regardless of creed and beliefs. If members of our military can meet the qualifications for a…

We are going to get serious about this.

the Department's goal in rescinding the rule is to ensure that the mission is met with the best-qualified and most-capable people, regardless of gender.

sequestration cuts would do catastrophic damage to our military, hollowing out the force and degrading its ability to protect the country.

While we have reasonable controls over much of our budgetary information, it is unacceptable to me that DOD cannot produce a financial statement that passes all financial audit standards. That will change. I have directed that this…

We were not getting information to that effect. Nobody was taking credit for it.

When a 747 blows up as the one did in Scotland, your first assumption is that this is not an accident. This is a deliberate act. Whether it's a bomb, whether it's a missile, what took place, somebody was responsible for blowing up that…

We were not getting information to that effect. Nobody was taking credit for it.

When a 747 blows up as the one did in Scotland, your first assumption is that this is not an accident. This is a deliberate act. Whether it's a bomb, whether it's a missile, what took place, somebody was responsible for blowing up that…

you can't have a huge infrastructure supporting a reduced force.

sequestration cuts would do catastrophic damage to our military, hollowing out the force and degrading its ability to protect the country.

We need to make government more efficient, more creative, make it an instrument of long-term economic growth, not an impediment, and make it a source of investment in our future, not a robber of our children's birthright.

this 5th generation fighter . . . is absolutely vital to maintaining our air superiority.

Accordingly, the U.S. military will invest as required to ensure its ability to operate effectively in anti-access and area denial environments. This will include developing a new stealth bomber.