The New and Improved but Not Quite Perfect QDR:

The Pentagon today released its final report (get it here) on the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, which began more than a year ago and took many strange twists and turns. We note that it keeps intact the much-maligned “two-war” force-sizing standard, first instituted by the Pentagon in the early 1990s. It reads, “During this QDR, senior leaders confirmed the importance of the main elements of that Force Planning Construct—maintaining the ability to defend the U.S. homeland; continuing to operate in and from forward areas; and above all, the importance of maintaining capabilities and forces to wage multiple campaigns in an overlapping time frame – for which there may be little or no warning of attack. This latter capability in particular remains a strong deterrent against opportunistic aggression or attempted coercion.” It specifically states that the US must have a force large enough “to wage two nearly simultaneous conventional campaigns (or one conventional campaign if already engaged in a large-scale, long-duration irregular campaign), while selectively reinforcing deterrence against opportunistic acts of aggression” and “be prepared in one of the two campaigns to remove a hostile regime, destroy its military capacity and set conditions for the transition to, or for the restoration of, civil society.” More coverage to come in future editions.