In the policy and strategy discussions that preceded the BUR, Secretary Aspin floated the idea of conducting one MRC rapidly and decisively while holding a second aggressor at bay until sufficient forces could be swung from the first contingency to provide the decisive force.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | The Measure of a Superpower: A Two Major Regional Contingency Military for the 21st Century | Page: 2

Only in the final resort would mobile anti-missile forces be deployed near a potential aggressor, he said.

CNN: UK signals support for missile plan

Instead beefing up its forces and letting Beijing stew for a while, India rewarded the aggressor with concessions.

WSJ: Brahma Chellaney: Beijing's Triumph of Coercive Diplomacy

Maintaining this core capability is central to credibly deterring opportunism that is, to avoiding a situation in which an aggressor in one region might be tempted to take advantage when U.S. forces are heavily committed elsewhere and to ensuring that the United States has sufficient military capabilities to deter or defeat aggression by an adversary that is larger, or under circumstances that are more difficult, than expected.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | The Measure of a Superpower: A Two Major Regional Contingency Military for the 21st Century