William Francis Raborn

And, you know, through much of the Cold War, innovation was key to America's success in countering and eventually defeating the Soviet Union by the late 1980s.

The Cold War innovations included Admiral Rickover's nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, General Bernard Shriver's intercontinental ballistic missiles, Admiral William Rayburn's Polaris submarine launch ballistic missile system, and Undersecretary of Defense William Perry, the F-117A stealth fighter.

However, like many military organizations in the post-World War era, the U.S. military has become used to these small counterinsurgency operations during the global war on terror.

In fact, following the war in Kuwait in 1991, the United States' national security strategy, written by George H.W. Bush's administration, believed that large-scale destructive wars between global powers were essentially a thing of the past.