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490,000. your thoughts of that, about that? >> jon, that is one of the things that concerns me most. every new secretary of defense, be they republican or democrat i think historically always mean well and talk to these think tank experts who never served a day in the military who tell them we can win a war basically with air power and special forces that we don't need that grunt on the ground but history tells us every time we need the grunt on the ground to win the war, to finish the job. that's what we saw in iraq. that's why the surge worked. because we got that grunt on the ground to fini...

Secretary gates was fond of saying the pentagon has had a near perfect record in predicting war. and always wrong. >>shepard: how much of a cut back? >> right now the army is 570,000 troops and this outlines does not outline exactly how small but it will go down to 490,000, marines will lose 25,000, essentially the amendment will be the hardest hit and critics say this budget is balanced on the backs of the army. >>shepard: and they saying this could send a message to iran, not the message we want to send. >>reporter: dangerous timing. i asked the chairman of the joint chiefs exactly that and ...

The briefing room here bill. bill: how is this exclusive to the u.s. army. >> reporter: it's not exclusive to the u.s. army. iraq and afghanistan were fought on the backs of ground forces. when 9/11 occurred there was not a large enough army to fight in afghanistan and iraq. during the surge they expanded the army to 570,000 groups. we learn the budget cuts are going to come on the backs of ground forces and the army in particular. the army will be the biggest losers. we are learning from leaks that the army will be reduced to about 490,000, that is a reduction of 80,000 traorpbgs the marines ...

He pleaded guilty to raketeering and conspiracy for money laundering. the 58-year-old will spend no more than 25 years behind bars and turn over $100 million in profits he made over the years. other charges that could have put him away for 140 years were for some reason dismissed. back to you. >> interesting. rick, thank you. jon: well just in, new marching orders for the pentagon. defense secretary leon panetta outlining a new strategy just an hour or so ago for america's armed forces calling for major cuts and shifting resources to help balance a shrinking budget talk about the plans with fo...

Predicting war. and always wrong. >>shepard: how much of a cut back? >> right now the army is 570,000 troops and this outlines does not outline exactly how small but it will go down to 490,000, marines will lose 25,000, essentially the amendment will be the hardest hit and critics say this budget is balanced on the backs of the army. >>shepard: and they saying this could send a message to iran, not the message we want to send. >>reporter: dangerous timing. i asked the chairman of the joint chiefs exactly that and he pushed back. >> nobody has said and it does not say we will not fight land war...