[YB]

Hey I found the article I mentionned before.
It's from 2002, so it's not that recent, but then again that trend in the army's budget is not new either.
Rumsfeld said in 2002 that the new military doctrine of the US was to have the capacity to operate on 4 major regional conflicts, wich meant being able to beat two agressors at the same time, plus leading a major counter-offensive somewhere else, plus occupying an ennemy's capital city to bring a new regime.

Before 1970 the idea was more around "two and a half" major conflicts; in the seventies, the divorce between china and the soviet union led Nixon to adjust it to "One and a haf".
Bush father and Clinton brought that back to two major conflicts, or "Major Theatre Wars" as stated in the 1997's Quadriennal Defense Review.

After 9/11, the bush administration decided they had to be able to face 4 major wars/conflicts : "We have to be prepared against new forms of terrorism, but also against attacks towards america's spatial potential, cyberagressions on our communication systems, and chemical or biological weapons"

Sorry about the crappy translation, but that's the idea.