U.S. to announce major change in defense strategy: paper

Japan Policy & Politics, May 14, 2001

WASHINGTON, May 7 Kyodo

The United States is planning a major shift in its global military posture, abandoning the traditional ''two major war'' concept and shifting the focus of the U.S. military from Europe to East Asia, the Washington Post reported Monday.

The paper said U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is expected to announce the new strategy next week after getting the green light from President George W. Bush later this week, probably Wednesday.

Bush will present his administration's new military strategy in a speech titled ''the vision of where we need to go as we move into the 21st century,'' to be delivered at the Naval Academy on May 25, the newspaper said.

The U.S. military has used the possibility of having to fight wars simultaneously in two places -- the Korean Peninsula and Iraq are the most frequently cited examples -- to figure out the minimum number of troops, airplanes, ships and gear needed.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer acknowledged Monday that Bush has instructed Rumsfeld to come up with recommendations on a new military strategy.

''The president wants the secretary to be able to complete his work, and at that point the president will share his thoughts about what the secretary recommends,'' Fleischer told reporters.

One option under discussion to replace the two-war yardstick is that the military should make sure it has capabilities to deal with a fast-changing world, the newspaper said.

This formulation puts less emphasis on preparing for conventional warfare and more on handling murkier situations such as defending Taiwan from a Chinese blockade or keeping open the Strait of Hormuz at the month of the Persian Gulf, the paper said.