Finding the Target

The American military has met a daunting set of challenges over the past few decades, from facing down the vast Soviet armies to hunting individual terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan. Throughout this period, the armed forces have been engaged in a continual process of reinvention, commonly called transformation. Military officers and civilians have been constantly forced not only to cope with the urgent demands of present crises, but also to think about the future development of the U.S. military. The first Gulf War complicated this effort by obscuring defects in American strategic thought behind extraordinary military success. The second Gulf War has obscured the matter even further, as an apparent military success turned into a long and difficult struggle.