The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America (August 2009, 18 pages) makes changes to the strategy of the Bush years. Wall Street Journal editor Gordon Crovitz sees less ambitious security goals in the changes made by Team Obama. Specifically, he cites three areas of Team 44 pullback:
For example, the new version of the document refers to the mission objective to "combat violent extremism" versus what the Bush administration's determination to "defeat terrorists at home and abroad." Combating is weaker than defeating.
Also, a mission that had been defined in 2005 as to "prevent and counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction" has been reduced to "counter WMD proliferation." Reducing prevention to countering seems like a move in the wrong direction as Iran grows closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.
Another change: the deletion of the Bush mission of "promoting the growth of freedom and democracy." From Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deliberate downgrading of human rights in the U.S.-China relationship to President Barack Obama's choice of Egypt for regional outreach, the administration has intentionally downplayed the U.S. role in promoting human rights and democracy. This is a problem even from a realpolitik point of view in a world where information gaps are the biggest risks. Closed countries and terror groups are the greatest obstacles to the free flow of information, especially about the risks they pose.
Bottom Line. These sound like, respectively: (a) declare victory and get out (Vermont GOP Senator George Aiken's famous recipe for Vietnam); (b) no more preventive strikes; and (c) support your friendly thug (OK where democracy cannot take root) or not so friendly thug (only OK if alternatives are worse).
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