National Defense Strategy

The DoD released the most recent version of The National Defense Strategy of the United States on Friday. It can be found in its entirety at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/2008 National Defense Strategy.pdf . Overall, it looks a lot better than the 2005 document. I think we can thank Secretary Gates for that. For example,

This conflict is a prolonged irregular campaign, a violent struggle for legitimacy
and influence over the population. The use of force plays a role, yet military
efforts to capture or kill terrorists are likely to be subordinate to measures to
promote local participation in government and economic programs to spur
development, as well as efforts to understand and address the grievances that often
lie at the heart of insurgencies. For these reasons, arguably the most important
military component of the struggle against violent extremists is not the fighting we
do ourselves, but how well we help prepare our partners to defend and govern
themselves.

It's 23 pages, and it's very general. That 's just the nature of the NDS. It's still worth a look.