Salon excerpts the December 2003

Strategic Studies Institute report, Bounding the Global War on Terrorism by Jeffrey Record, a Vietnam veteran, author and professor in the Department of Strategy and International Security at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College in Montgomery, Ala. Record says that conflating al-Qaida and Iraq, and setting the impossible goal of ending terrorism, ‘violates fundamental strategic principles’ — and could strain the U.S. military to the breaking point.

The author examines three features of the war on terrorism as currently defined and conducted: (1) the administration’s postulation of the terrorist threat, (2) the scope and feasibility of U.S. war aims, and (3) the war’s political, fiscal, and military sustainability. He believes that the war on terrorism–as opposed to the campaign against al-Qaeda–lacks strategic clarity, embraces unrealistic objectives, and may not be sustainable over the long haul. He calls for downsizing the scope of the war on terrorism to reflect concrete U.S. security interests and the limits of American military power.

The full text (PDF) can be downloaded here.