National military strategy changes

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be retiring soon, and before his departure he gave a briefing at the Pentagon discussing the first update since 2011 of the National Military Strategy. According to Dempsey, the update was necessary because since the last update, "global disorder has trended upward while some of our comparative advantages have begun to erode."

When addressing the future, Dempsey said, "We are more likely to face prolonged campaigns than conflicts that are resolved quickly ... that control of escalation is becoming more difficult and more important ..." Washington's failure to recognize this was made evident by the forecasts issued before the war with Iraq, what we prepared for, and what actually happened. He further stated that the U.S. may have to adjust its global posture. I believe this can be interpreted that when multiple prolonged conflicts are taking place in the world, we may not be able or afford to fight them all. An example of these prolonged wars is evident in that the U.S. has been in combat in Afghanistan for 5,000 days.

The enemies we will face will include extremist organizations such as ISIS and militias supported by other nations, as Russia has been doing in Ukraine. The threats presented by other nations include cyber attacks and the threat of ballistic missile technology. At the same time we must be prepared for conventional warfare as we could see in Korea. A new issue has been created as China expands by building new islands to place its military in international sea lanes.

None of these projections is new, but with the publication of this National Military Strategy, the Department of Defense has formally stated what our military will be preparing for. The National Military Strategy is a nonpartisan report prepared by the DOD without regard for future budgetary or Washington political positions.

The information source for this column is primarily from the July 2, 2015, issue of the "D Brief" publication by Defense One.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.