Following his long-awaited announcement detailing a proposal for massive defense spending cuts and an overall reduction in military personnel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed his list of the risks and the most pressing threats to America's security.

"This is going to be tough," Panetta told reporters Thursday. "Obviously it will be a smaller force, and when you have a smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms of our capability to respond."

So in the near future where will the world’s strongest military need to respond?

Panetta says there's a long list of potential problems. Among his top concerns, he says, are: the ongoing war in Afghanistan; the threat of terrorism; the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan; Yemen; a nuclear-capable Iran; a nuclear-capable North Korea; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; turmoil in the Middle East, and the potential for cyber warfare.

The U.S. military's ground forces, specifically the Army and Marines are slated to lose nearly 100,000 troops. The Army will shrink to 490,000 troops down from the current 562,000. The Marines will shrink by 20,000, down to 182,000.

But retired Maj. Gen. Bob Scales says the Pentagon is ignoring the lessons of history. (read more)

President Barack Obama will make a rare visit to the Pentagon Thursday morning when he rolls out the new military strategy tied to deep cuts in military spending over the next 10 years.

Officials in the Pentagon say it's the first time any president will address reporters in the Pentagon briefing room.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t plan on taking questions.

He'll leave that to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, two men he has worked closely with to devise this new approach to countering worldwide threats.  "But ultimately," as one senior defense official put it, "it's the president's strategy."

"He was heavily involved in the military strategy," this official said, adding the president also met in recent weeks with every Combatant Commander to review it.

The new strategy is based purely around the roughly $490 billion in cuts to the defense budget over 10 years that Congress decided on last summer.  According to those familiar with the report, the future U.S. military will have the ability to fight only one major land war at a time.  Any addition battles would have to be fought primarily from the sea and air. (read more)

The Pentagon says it will have to eliminate major military programs including ground-based nuclear missiles and the next generation of fighter jets if Congress makes further military cuts.

In a letter to Sen. John McCain written on November 14, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta compiled a list of crucial military programs that would be on the chopping block should the congressional Super Committee tasked with finding government-wide savings fail to reach an agreement, triggering an automatic cutting process known as "sequestration."

The sequestration process would cut as much as $600 billion from the Defense Department over 10 years. That figure would be added to $450 billion in cuts that have already been made, totaling more than $1 trillion.

"Facing such large reductions, we would have to reduce the size of the military sharply," Panetta wrote. "Rough estimates suggest after 10 years of these cuts, we would have the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force in its history." (read more)

Roadside bombs, the number one killer of U.S. troops in the Iraq and Afghan wars, is still the biggest challenge facing the military as it ferries thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment out of Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, Deputy Commanding General for support in Iraq, says the military is taking every precaution possible on its way out of the country, but these bombs are still a risk.

"We continue to experience attacks primarily from improvised explosive devices on our routes," Spoehr told Pentagon reporters while speaking on a video conference from Baghdad on Thursday. "That trend, while it has gone down, has never gone to zero."

A steady flow of heavily armored truck convoys, 30 to 50 vehicles in length, have already moved a huge amount of equipment out of Iraq.

"We had about 2 million pieces of pieces of property," Spoehr said. "Today we're down to about 600,000 pieces of equipment, about 20,000 pieces of which are vehicles or trailers."

Spoehr also announced that "the vast majority of U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by mid-December," adding that most of the 33,000 troops in Iraq today will leave by air, many of them flying to Kuwait first. (read more)

In response to allegations this week that Iranian entities plotted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C., Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., introduced a House resolution urging the Obama administration to more aggressively examine terrorist threats in the Western Hemisphere emanating from Iran.

The resolution cites specific incidents that demonstrate Iran's support for terrorism and its intent to target Americans.

The resolution asks the Obama administration to: "Include the Western Hemisphere in the Administration's 2012 National Strategy for Counterterrorism's ‘Area of Focus,' which was absent in the 2011 edition." It also asks the Department of Homeland Security, along with other intelligence agencies, "to examine Iran's presence, activity, and relationships in the Western Hemisphere, including the U.S." (read more)

An emotional morning ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at the Pentagon began at dawn with the unfurling of an enormous American flag--a replica of the one that hung in the same spot after flight 77 crashed into the building that tragic morning--and ended with the arrival of New York firefighters who biked there to commemorate the day.

Military and civilian defense leaders spoke to a small gathering of family members who've had to cope with their losses 10 years. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told them "these are the things the terrorists could not eradicate. They could bring down walls, but they could not bring down America. They could kill our citizens, but they could not kill our citizenship."

Vice President Biden said he admired the courage of the families. "Those in this building that day knew that this was a declaration of war by stateless actors bent on changing our way of life... who believed these horrible acts of terror could buckle our knees... could bend our will... could break us." (read more)

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has approved a request to increase force protection on U.S. based military installations in preparation for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little announced Wednesday. 

In addition, Fox News has obtained an internal document sent from Northern Command with instructions for all military bases operate under security level ALPHA through Sept. 11.

ALPHA is only one step up from a normal or standard security status.  It increases in order from NORMAL to ALPHA, to BRAVO to CHARLIE.  CHARLIE would be established if intelligence shows and imminent threat.  DELTA is the highest level and would be declared when an actual attack is occurring.

Little said this increase in security is not in response to any "specific or credible threat," rather simply "prudent and precautionary planning."  Although he reminded us that there were documents found at Bin Laden Abbottabad compound that mentioned aspirations to strike on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. (read more)

Following attacks on the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus yesterday, State Department Spokesman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday the Syrian Foreign Ministry has returned the U.S. flag that was stolen and replaced with a Syrian flag.

She said the Syrian government has arrested six people in connection with the attacks and it has replaced damaged U.S. security cameras and improved Syrian security forces around the U.S. embassy.

The trouble at the embassies led Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to say Monday that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule the nation. Al-Assad's regime has severely cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators rising up against the Syrian government.

Fox News Producer Wes Barrett contributed to this story.

At a farewell ceremony on the Pentagon parade field Thursday, President Barack Obama honored outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award the president can give a civilian.

Speaking in front of a number of active and retired military and civilian leaders, Obama turned to Gates and said, "this was not part of the program," before he announced the award.

Gates was noticeably surprised by the honor and when he stood to receive it he quipped, "We should all know by now you're getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff," -- a reference to the now infamous Bin Laden raid.

Obama recognized Gates for his unique service under two presidents, Democratic and Republican, while the nation was in the midst of two wars. He encouraged the rest of Washington to take note of the selfless manner in which Gates served, putting politics aside and his "nation first." (read more)

Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen, nominated to replace Gen. David Petraeus as head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged Tuesday that President Obama's decision to draw down 10,000 troops by the end of this year and the rest of the surge forces by September 2012 was not one of the options proposed to the president by Gen. Petraeus.

The admission came during questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during Allen's nomination hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services committee.

GRAHAM: The option that the country has chosen through President Obama is to withdraw 10,000 this year, all surge forces gone by September. Is it fair to say, General Allen, that was not one of the options presented to the president by General Petraeus?

ALLEN: It is a more aggressive option than that which was presented. (read more)