Obama likely to opt for strategic retraction

That is the so-called Nixon Doctrine, of which the gist is to pursue a strategic retraction by reducing the defense obligations the U.S. had to fulfill around the world. Between then and the early 1980s the country basically remained in strategic retraction, mostly because the U.S. was sinking deeper in the swamp of Vietnam War with the society bitterly split.

In the early 1980s the Reagan administration put the nation back on the track of strategic expansion as it assumed the U.S. had recovered from its "Vietnam War Syndrome". President Ronald Reagan moved into the White House with the banner of "restoring American power" held high. He lost little time in setting up an all-round rivalry against the Soviet Union with all guns blazing and ultimately exhausted the other superpower to death with his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

After the Cold War ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the U.S. not only maintained the Cold War-era military alliance without a clearly-defined enemy but also pushed forward NATO's eastward expansion while reaping the benefits of the Cold War.

It also made easy gains from its intervention in the first Gulf War and massive air raids against Yugoslavia. After the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the Bush administration rode on the surging patriotic fervor of the nation and launched the war on Iraq before wiping out al-Qaida, achieving another "over-expansion of the empire".

The war in Iraq has seriously consumed the U.S.' hard strength, sucking more than 580 billion U.S. dollar out of the federal coffer by the end of the 2008 fiscal year; while the nation's soft strength was also heavily damaged, with its international image reduced from bad to worse amid rising anti-Americanism around the world (particularly among the Muslim communities).

Islamic fundamentalists are doing a pretty good job keeping the U.S. military busy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and constantly reminding Washington the war on terror is far from over.