Properly executed theater strategy allows combatant commands to align resources with theater objectives. Essentially, strategic decisions must go up against what are sometimes called structural decisions, which are the decisions of domestic politics. At the base of these decisions is how much funding the Armed Forces receive and how those are distributed. Thus making strategy is never divorced from budgetary constraints, which are the governing reality of force and strategy development. Other bureaucratic and organizational needs also affect strategy formulation and force structure. Misalignment of what must be done with what is available to do it can be catastrophic. In those cases, means must be increased, ends must be reined in, or there must be strategic adjustment
Given the large number of U.S. forces deployed around the world and the casualties sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is easy to miss that the Services do much more than engage in combat. On any given day, military engineers dig wells in East Africa, medical personnel provide vaccinations in Latin America, and special operations forces (SOF) mentor militaries in Southeast Asia.
