The Pentagon wants the services to create a "new breed of warrior" who can perform his own skill sets and take on the abilities of a special operation commando in fighting terrorists.

A draft of the Defense Department's 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) says these warriors will be "able to move more easily between disparate mission sets while preserving their depth of skill in primary specialties. Future warriors will be as proficient in irregular operations, including counterinsurgency and stabilization operations, as they are today in high-intensity combat."

The move is an example of how the war to find and eliminate Islamic terrorists is permeating nearly every aspect of the Pentagon's long-range planning.

Last year, the department announced that stability operations, commonly called "nation building," would be a top priority for global combatant commanders, right alongside planning for war. Officials say such operations can bolster a country's ability to resist al Qaeda, which tries to establish cells in unstable regimes.

The Pentagon also will become more involved in developing "medical countermeasures" in germ warfare under the strategy review, which continues the armed forces' push to become lighter and more agile.

A $1.5 billion fund will be created to develop counters to "genetically engineered bio-agents," says a draft of the QDR, due out next week. Mandated by Congress, the QDR is the department's four-year look at what the 2 million active and reserve forces need to counter existing and future threats.

The plan is heavy on new ideas for finding and fighting terrorists, who often exploit ungoverned areas, such as Somalia or Pakistan's tribal areas, to hide and plan...