Role of the military

With the War on Terror and the War in Iraq the role of the military has been a constant issue. When should the military be used and how? During the Clinton administration the military was often used for saber rattling and bluster to try to get favorable terms at the negotiating table. Carrier groups were often moved to hot spots to show America's determination. But it was rarely used and when used was very limited. Clinton's favored use of the military was the use of cruise missiles or limited air strikes. The Bush administration, prompted by the fear caused by 9/11, has taken the opposite stance and has primarily used the military as the first choice.

So which is right? In my personal opinion the military should be used as the last resort when all diplomacy has failed and only if there is overwhelming evidence of a serious threat to the United States or its allies. We wouldn't go to war against Sudan or Indonesia, for instance, because they are more threats to themselves than anyone else. I believe our emphasis in the War on Terror should be to beef up our intelligence gathering agencies with human intelligence (aka spies) infiltrated into these terrorist organizations. Then military special forces can be used to hit training camps hard and fast, as well as eliminating the upper level organizers by either taking them into custody or killing them. Because terrorist organizations like Hamas and Al Qaida are so dispersed and are not located in one central location, full scale army units are not very useful and only increase the spread of radical Islamist sympathies. The key to this new type of war is improved intelligence and surgical strikes using specially trained small scale forces. Now considering the secretive nature of this type of warfare it is possible the current administration is doing this already and we just don't hear about it. However, after four + years of watching the swagger and bravado of Bush & Co. I have serious doubts. They don't come across as being prone to subtleties.
This raises the question, if the above was used as the main game plan of the US in the war on terror what is the purpose of having such a large military with all these expensive weapon systems? Why not trim the Defense budget some and cut back on traditional armed forces spending? The answer is because we don't know what the future holds. What if China, which is a rising power in Asia, decides to invade Taiwan? What if Russia becomes a major power again and seeks to expand its regional domination? If 9/11 proved anything it is that we don't know what may happen or what the next big conflict may look like. I would rather maintain the Premier status of our Armed Forces then try to play catch up when we're caught with our pants down.