Forget swarming, it’s our RoEs, and the laws of war that underpin them, that are the

[Tukhachevskii]

I think there are much, much higher priorities than that.
The Iraq/AFG wars have convinced one Western generation (of politicians again) that war is too messy, expensive and unlikely to yield the desired outcome.

But that's exactly the point! The Vietnam war was just as messy for, IMO, exactly the same reasons, i.e., not our warfighting capabilities but our inability to deploy that capability without hobbling it/tying it to RoE that patently prevent us from accomplishing our mission. The ICM ban is part an parcel of the issue (though Etzioni isn't directly concerned with it). This is not to say that we need to go in guns blazing and impose a "carthaginian" peace upon any and all that would seek to attack us it means realising that the laws of war only apply if the OTHER side adheres to them too. Otherwise we/you are just tying one of your own arms behind your back (like bringing a Knife to a gun fight).

As for your geopolitical concerns I share them (like you I too consider myself a "good European" a la Nietzsche) and would prefer to see a purely defensive role for NATO/WEU with situations like 11th Sept handled through long range firepower, putting a strangle hold on the global commons where necessary and supporting proxies in the region: we should have, IMO, let the Northern Alliance get on with it and supported them with fires and allow the region, if necessary (given the region's predisposition toward anarchy), to decend into chaos sucking in Jihadis from all over and tying down Pakistan (which would thereby learn its lesson) and Iran (which would thus become infinately more amenable on other fronts) for decades and deploy the odd SoF unit where and if (METT-T(C)) necessary...but that's my pet peeve