Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced Thursday the military’s intention to cut approximately 100,000 active duty troops from the Army and Marines, as well as large fiscal cut-backs by all the branches of the military. Going forward, he clarified, the US military would retain a strong technical edge and would focus on elite units – such as the ones used in the operation on Wednesday which successfully rescued two hostages held by Somali pirates. That operation, which rescued a Danish and an American hostage, resulted in with a shootout which killed the nine captors. Neither hostage and none of the American special forces were injured.
