LOL.
Thank God its over!
A friend of mine says he met a marine officer once who became interested in him after he learned he is Pakistani. But when my friend (who reads Edward Said for fun..so you can imagine..) started trying to explain "the war of ideas" to the officer, the officer lost interest, started fidgeting and eventually (apologetically and politely) said "I am really not good at this stuff; I am interested in kinetics".
My friend (who had never heard the term "kinetics" outside of high school physics) tells this tale as an example of American military obtuseness. But I am now convinced that the US might have done much better if more decision makers were more interested in "kinetics".
The war of ideas has not been good for common sense....
On the other hand, I may be getting carried away with the pleasure of being snarky. The war of ideas may not be lost and the US psyops effort may even be doing some good. We should not submit too easily to the pleasures of pessimism.