The next president will have to decide whether he is willing to take the necessary measures to decisivelydefeat terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan once and for all.
This stood for defending the homeland, deterring hostilities in four areas of the world, defeating two adversaries in nearly simultaneous combat operations, and being able to decisivelydefeat one of those two adversaries.
And Communist China is operationalizing its ability to engage in what its military planners have described as "unrestricted warfare" - a strategy for using every instrument of power, from traditional and unconventional weaponry to financial attacks and terrorism - to decisivelydefeat the United States.
It behooves Gov. Romney to maximize the former and minimize the latter if he wants decisively to defeat the President in these mass-audience settings, and in November.
But the result was defeat, not only in Cuba itself but in the Philippines: a defeat that helped to consign Spain to a period of confusion and weakness from which it is only now decisively emerging.