The U.S. military is drawing up plans for a long, long war on terror.
An excerpt from the BBC story:
The US Defence Department has released a long-awaited report on how the US military will organise and equip itself in the face of "new and elusive foes".
The quadrennial defence review will be presented to the US Congress next week.
The document, known by its acronym, QDR, opens with the words: "The US is engaged in what will be a long war."
It describes what the US military must do to defeat current and future enemies - flagged as "rogue powers, terrorist networks and non-state threats".
The document identifies four categories of threat:
- Traditional challenges - other nation states fielding conventional militaries which will compete with the US
- Irregular challenges - terrorism and insurgency chief among them
- Catastrophic challenges - the use of weapons of mass destruction by international terrorist networks or "rogue states"
- Disruptive challenges - an enemy's ability to counter or interfere with US capabilities, perhaps through new technologies
Of these, say the authors of the quadrennial defence review (QDR), the catastrophic challenge is the most serious threat, and the one which the US must work most assiduously to address.
Better intelligence
The review plans for more special operations forces that can operate anywhere in the world at short notice and in secret.
Some independent analysts in Washington are already asking how the military plans to pay for all these changes
It also foresees better intelligence, and more unmanned aircraft that can loiter and spy and attack.
It will deploy more soldiers in psychological warfare and stability operations.
It will build special units that can track and disable nuclear weapons.
These are all capabilities, says the military, aimed at fighting an enemy like al-Qaeda in the information age - very different to fighting another country in the industrial age.
In this, the QDR highlights a moment of historical transition: a moment when infantry divisions, battleships and artillery began to fade as the truest instruments of military power.
It is a moment when intelligence and surveillance mechanisms, agile, self-sufficient combat brigades and unmanned aircraft began to come of age.
