WASHINGTON — The U.S. military plans to shift its focus away from conventional battles like the 2003 invasion of Iraq and toward "the long war" against extremism by boosting investment in special operations forces, drone aircraft and language training for U.S. troops, according to a Pentagon strategy document released Friday.
The long-awaited review is billed as a blueprint for a generation of budget decisions. Though it is seen as a cornerstone of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's plan to overhaul and modernize the military, the plan does not recommend elimination of any major weapon system.
The review does not endorse a large increase in U.S. ground forces. But after three years of a war that has been longer and more lethal than most in the Pentagon had envisioned, the document places a new importance on getting help from other nations to fight wars and keep peace.
The Pentagon assessment, known as the Quadrennial Defense Review, will be presented formally to Congress on Monday, along with the Defense Department's 2007 budget request. President Bush will ask Congress for $439.3 billion to fund the department in 2007, a 5% increase over this year's Pentagon budget, defense officials said.
The proposed budget does not include a $70-billion request for new funds for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The strategy document, written in the shadow of the long and unpopular Iraq war, reflects some of the lessons that the military has learned over the last three years.
The 2001 version of the review, issued days after the Sept. 11 attacks, spoke of a military that should be able to "swiftly defeat" two adversaries at once. It envisioned that ground troops could topple a regime, occupy an enemy capital, then quickly redeploy forces to other crisis spots.
The Iraq war punctured that vision, and the new review abandons the language of swift victories. The document states that actions "defined in terms of 'swiftly defeating' or 'winning decisively' against adversaries may be less useful for some types of operations U.S. forces may be directed to conduct."
Instead, it cites the need to prepare to fight a "large-scale, potentially long-duration irregular warfare campaign including counterinsurgency and security, stability, transition and reconstruction operations."
The Iraq war strained America's relations with its allies and limited the Bush administration's ability to persuade other nations to commit troops in Iraq. With this lesson in mind, the review emphasizes the importance of working with U.S. allies around the globe.
