What should the U.S. military's future strategy be?

The U.S. military appears to be in transition right now -- a transition which was going slow during the 1990's, but has been sped up ten-fold since Sept. 11, 2001 -- of going from a completely Cold War mentality to a Cold War and War on Terrorism mentality.

The Soviet Union may be history, but the Cold War is not completely dead; the U.S. protects Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan from North Korea and China; it also keeps its guard up with Cuba close by...

On the other hand, the War on Terrorism has heated up to a global scale since Sept. 11, 2001; the U.S. went from playing defense (and treating terrorist acts as criminal acts) before that day to full offense (and treating terrorist acts as acts of war) after that day against Muslim terrorists. Now Iraq and Afghanistan are in U.S. control, with other Arab dictators and monarchs (like in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine, for example) now nervously wondering what the U.S. is going to do next.

Is the U.S. military spread too thin? Is the U.S. making any effort to consolidate its forces and bring soldiers and hardware back to the 50 States & D.C. whenever possible? Does the U.S. need to start consolidating its military bases (for example, instead of 20 small bases, why not 10 medium sized bases, or 5 large bases?), or would that put the U.S. military at a disadvantage? Does membership in the U.N. and NATO help or hurt the U.S. when it comes to the use of its military?

What should the U.S. military's future strategy be concerning all these issues?

Originally posted by ThunderCloud
Is the U.S. military spread too thin? Is the U.S. making any effort to consolidate its forces and bring soldiers and hardware back to the 50 States & D.C. whenever possible? Does the U.S. need to start consolidating its military bases (for example, instead of 20 small bases, why not 10 medium sized bases, or 5 large bases?), or would that put the U.S. military at a disadvantage? Does membership in the U.N. and NATO help or hurt the U.S. when it comes to the use of its military?

What should the U.S. military's future strategy be concerning all these issues?

1) Yes, the US is spread thin. We need more troops and $$$$
2) No. A key part of US strategy is to have forward deployed soldiers around the globe. This allows for quick response to regional conflicts. Also keep in mind that the US has nukes to protect us from a traditional invasion. Basically, the US picks the place and time of battle, and if you don't like that and attack us, you will be nuked.
3) Absolutely not. Ever heard of "not putting all of your eggs in the same basket"? Simply put, give the enemy more targets to try and take out.
4) The UN hurts the US. Anytime you are trying to get permission from another country to fight, something is wrong.

I believe the US should go back to Reagan-esque type millitary spending. Get the number of GI's closer to 2 million, invest in MUCH better intel, and plan on being able to fight 2 conventional wars in different parts of the globe, plus a long term battle in the middle east with the war on terror.

honestly who knows? We could easily anhialate each and every country in the middle east. The repracusions would be devistating. Other world powers would most certainly not have it. I feel that if we keep a mighty present in Iraq then the forces of our true enemys will lose interest and give up. simply show them that our presence is too mighty by making Iraq into the central headquarters of US military power. Imagine if a gigantic fortress was constructed with an american flag painted on it in central Bahgdad. However if other countrys blatently come into the mix then i must say expanding forces is essential to maintaining economic and presuasive supiriority. in the game civilazation all you need to do is tap resources and build build build. Its important to expand only if you have sufficient supply of $$$ and troops. We need to become more efficient at expanding and building things faster. Security is essential to keeping things running.

I think our main goal should be to pull out of the U.N

After that, we should make our military technology the best in the world, it already is but other countries are gaining!