There is no way that anyone in the Bush administration will buy the graduated respone bit. The policy of the 60's and 70's was started under Kennedy. It was based on the fact the United states was very powerful, and we should only use as much force was was needed to win. The idea was we would teach them a little lesson and they would fold.
It was a disaster. We taught them that they could win if they just held on long enough for us to tire of not winning. They did and we lost. Each attempt by us to use more force was attacked by our own media. Nixon failed to understand that if he had used all our force in ruthless persuit of victory he would have had victory. Victory would have made Nixon more popular than Clinton. His failure to understand that there is no substitute for victory, cost him his presidency.
Bush Sr., Cheney, Powell and Company decided that the way to win was overwhelming force applied every where it could be applied. That indeed does work.
People are misreading the "This will take time statements." You can bet no nation is misreading it. It means we will take whatever time it requires to build up our forces and military power. When the odds for our immediate victory are 99.99999 out of 100 we will attack. Vietnam was, "If we bloody your nose you will surrender." This time it will be, "We will not require dead people to surrender in person."
Look for the media to be put under limits. In World War II General's Eisenhower and MacArthur exercised complete control over all coverage. Our military put the media under some control in Desert Storm. But Bush Sr. only had 36 percent approval for his attack. Bush Jr. has a 90 percent approval for his. He will use that approval to control two forces that oppose him. They are the Taliban and the media.
Don't fail to understand what is being said. It will take time to build up our military power. It is less than 1/4 what it was before Desert Storm and it took 7 months to build up enough force then. It may take longer than 7 months to build up enough force now. This war in tone and strategy will be like WWII. It took us from Dec,7th 1941 until June 6th, 1944 to build a force that could defeat Hitler in Europe. Eisenhower did not attack until he was ready. Stalin and Churhill both wanted a much quicker attack. Had Eisenhower done so, it is likely we would have lost. Bush Jr. will not follow the advice to act too quickly. Bush will assemble what it takes to win. Then win. And that is the name of that tune.