All this risk, in a decade that will likely see the continuing rapid growth of the Chinese military, continuing instability in the Middle East and South Asia, alongside the need to rebuild a force strained by years of war.
Mr. Charles must also rebuild a force corrupted by Colombian drug traffickers, who pay millions of dollars a year to Haitian officials to ship cocaine through Haiti to the United States, the State Department says.
The Pentagon would get too much money for wars winding down and not enough for retraining and rebuilding a force depleted by more than a decade of fighting.
In the years ahead, the US military will wind down its involvement in Afghanistan while rebuilding a force weathered by multiple lengthy combat tours.
They plan to strengthen an emaciated justice system and to gut and rebuild a police force that is widely viewed as disorganized, demoralized, ineffectual and corrupt.
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled, or saw their units collapse in combat, after Islamic State fighters first swept across the border from Syria in the spring and summer, and the new government in Baghdad is struggling to rebuild a credible force.
The administration announced it would sell 18 more F-16 fighter jets to Iraq, helping rebuild an air force destroyed by war, and Mr. Maliki said he was seeking other military equipment.
Officials said the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, would probably follow soon to help rebuild a Palestinian security force.
But they also announced that the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, is to leave on Friday for a brief trip to the region, where he will assess how to rebuild a Palestinian security force free of extremist elements.
After Mr. Sharon's departure, a senior Israeli military official came to Washington with the message that Israel saw no "utility" in the Tenet mission because it was intended to rebuild a Palestinian security force under Mr. Arafat.
In the aftermath of a less-than-spectacularly-victorious war, folks discover that it's difficult and costly to rebuild a worn-out, beat-up force tired from fighting, something sports fans might know as a "rebuilding season".
