Peace Making: Iraq, Afghanistan, and a Softer Art of War

John Noonan Via Weekly Standard Blog on Adm Mullins in WaPo,

The U.S. military is posturing itself as the vanguard of American idealism -- it's less an aggressive fighting force than it is a guardian of individual liberties and inalienable rights. During the Cold War, the Armed Forces fulfilled a similar mission, defending free European nations against Soviet tyranny. That required a military which could shred Russian armored columns and mechanized infantry with frightening kinetic power. Today it's the same duty, only on the micro level. Gone are mass formations of M1 tanks and legions of fighter jets, replaced instead with riflemen standing posts in Middle Eastern marketplaces. Tyranny still threatens, but it is in the form of militant zealots even more culturally backwards than the Soviets.

Some have argued that this transformation is the most drastic and remarkable shift in U.S. military history. Perhaps, at least structurally. The core mission is unchanged, as our powerful fighting forces remain an arm of the U.S. constitution, and thus the sword and shield of free people everywhere.

I'd argue the core mission's alawys been the same: the sword and shield of free people everyowhere. We get tactics and strategies tangled some time but the core's remained the same since President Wilson.