"what loses wars are not the inevitable mistakes, but the failure to correct them in time and the defeatism and depression (because errors occurred at all) that we allow to paralyze us."
What VDH fails to mention is that element of political class who perceive our defeat in the WOT as working somehow to their advantage.
We ain't as good as we once was.
American statesmen need to provide constant explanations to a public not well versed in history—not mere assertions—of what misfortunes to expect when they take the nation to war.
We have damn few statemen, and damn little stomach for misfortune. Didn't the Democrats and ANSWER and the UN and the Euroweenies tell us what bad things were going to happen back in 2003?
our morale is as important as our material advantages
Even more important, but our morale is under constant attack by oppositional elements within our own society who share short-term goals with the Far Enemy. Too many of my fellow citizens seek to accelerate America’s retreat from global hegemony and would punish those who stand in their way if they could for politically incorrect thought. This is not a conflict resolvable by Regular Strategic Communicators and Information Operators, nor should it be. They have polite fictions to maintain.
This is a Domestic Internal Defense mission that only those political operatives and Civilian Irregular Information Operators sympathetic to American Exceptionalism can accomplish.