and nowhere did I see anything that led me to believe anyone who'd commented questioned the consanguinity of politics and war. Where did you get the idea that anyone did question it?

Gray's comment is true, Nagl's less so. The WH knew it was political (on several counts) from the start; DoD and the JCS not so much; ComUSMACV initially did not but finally woke up, knew it was political but still refused to adapt and tried to fight a land war in Europe in the rice paddies of SE Asia (until Abrams took over). The point being that 'knowing' and doing are two different things --as Gray points out...

FYI, the Gray monograph has been linked here a couple of times and many have read it, I suspect.