Mullen doctrine

Six-and-a-half years after the nation watched on television the "shock and awe" strategy of massive firepower against Saddam Hussein in the opening days of the Iraq war, Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has abandoned the policy. Along with it, he swept aside the hubris of the "Mission Accomplished" sign that came back to haunt the Bush administration's handling of the war.

Adm. Mullen, in an address at Kansas State University, outlined a revised American defensive policy refined by the realities of war in Iraq and Afghanistan with the latest Marjah offensive the leading example.

Now and in the future, Adm. Mullen said, the military "must not try to use force only in an overwhelming capacity, but in the proper capacity, and in a precise and principled manner."

Restraint rather than carpet bombing and missile strikes has been a key element in the U.S.-led assault against the Taliban in Marjah to minimize civilian casualties with one main goal: to avoid alienating with indiscriminate force the people you want as allies when the war ends.

"The battlefield," he said, "isn't necessarily a field anymore. It's in the minds of the people."

As for winning, there will be no "Mission Accomplished" signs. There will be no V-J or V-E days for Americans to celebrate victory and bring the troops home.

Confident of victory, Adm. Mullen declared "we will win" but "quite frankly, it will feel a lot less like a knockout punch and a lot more like recovering from a long illness."

Echoing a theme of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on the use of "soft power," Adm. Mullen told listeners that future victories will require more civilian-military cooperation in foreign policy that "is still too dominated by the military."

Military force, he said, should be committed "only if and when the other instruments of national power are ready to engage, as well."

Strategy reviews are needed periodically, not just for ongoing conflicts, to build a military that is prepared to fight today and ready to respond to the threats of tomorrow.