“The plan miscarried. But not in its essentials.”

That’s entirely right.

The other big pillar of the plan I believe you’re missing here is “fight them over there rather than fight them over here“, which is pretty persuasive all by itself.

We also should award credit because fighting over there has allowed us to engage in a great deal of experimentation that has now multiplied the effectiveness of our military in both this and other war situations. Check with the Chinese, the Russians or other potential foes to see just how psychologically staggering the extent of this progress has been.

It’s also worth noting that another big attack on our soil would have built the missing domestic coalition overnight. For a long time seemed more likely than not. Ironically the Bush administration’s success in this respect created a political liability.

The only thing Bush is lacksadaisical about is the politics of ‘the permanent campaign’, and this may have a lt to do with the failure to build a consensus around the war. That’s because he’s basically not a guy who lives and breathes politics, or bases his self-esteem on his popularity. I find I don’t really feel like count this against him. Plus, look closely at other American wars over time and you will find that consensus in the sense of a suspension of determined and even grossly abusive political opposition was generally not achieved.