Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, introducing a new defense strategy at the Pentagon, said that the United States is taking “additional but acceptable risks” under budgetary constraints, but warned that  scheduled cuts under sequestration could jeopardize national security.

“We will be taking on some level of additional but acceptable risk in the budget plan we release next month,” Panetta said this morning, before conjuring images of a grim future, saying that sequestration “would force us to shed missions, commitments, and capabilities necessary to protect core U.S. national security interests, resulting in a demoralized and hollow force.”