“In short, U.S. forces today and in the years to come can be plausibly challenged by a range of threats that extend far beyond the familiar ‘major regional conflicts’ that have dominated U.S. planning since the end of the Cold War. We have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars we would have planned. For instance, in Iraq and Afghanistan, two theaters in which we are engaged simultaneously, we have seen that achieving operational military victory can only be the first step toward achieving our strategic objectives.”

It is, of course, a severe exaggeration to say that the entire 128-page QDR was written around these three sentences. But for the Washington defense debate, the preceding lines represent a contention around which progressive defense analysts and the counterinsurgency community have united since, probably, 2004. It’s natural that the Obama administration, which embraced that alliance since the 2008 campaign, would enshrine it into the Pentagon’s core strategic document. But there’s still something about those three sentences that induces a feeling of pride when they’re nailed to the walls of the E-Ring.