Legends. I wish today’s national policies had the same analytical rigor and clarity of thought.

With just the direct quotes here, I’m not sure what your claim is. Are you saying that the US _still_ was attempting to achieve maximum capability as of April 2001? If so, I’m not sure that is implied by the quotes provided. “The cumulative effect of dominance in…” does not imply that every deployed US system is the best, imo. I read it as saying the US dominates in all the listed regimes — not that each individual system is the best, but that the US is the best in each regime as a whole. There’s a subtle difference between the two

You have the sides reversed:

Russia pulled back on both flanks (Kharkiv and Kherson) to preserve men, while Ukraine grindered men in Bakhmut and Kursk and the “summer offensive”.

One of the interesting aspects of this war is that Russia has a much better understanding of attritional war than either Ukraine or NATO.

The lesson in Ukraine seems to be the same one we failed to learn in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq: major powers absolutely suck at asymmetric wars that the adversary considers matters of national or cultural survival. It turns into a meat grinder for the major power until domestic pressures force some sort of climbdown. Vietnamization and pacification became bribes to afghan militias and COIN. I cant think of a hot war that the West has won since Desert Storm. But what wars are like that now?

Is that quote correct? It's either paradoxical or I can't read.