The next president will have to decide whether he is willing to take the necessary measures todecisivelydefeat terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan once and for all.
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 - todecisivelydefeat the United States.
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 todecisivelydefeat one of those two adversaries.
It behooves Gov. Romney to maximize the former and minimize the latter if he wants decisivelytodefeat 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.