" Image compares the CBO January 2001 surplus baseline forecast for the 2002-2011 period versus the actual deficit amounts. " Not many US-led wars were won by the US in the past so many years. The other countries or people did not lose their wars to the US easily, not because their economy individually was strong or their military equipment/set-up was even close to the US, etc.
Perhaps many, if not most, of the conventional thoughts/theories about warfare strategies could have been outdated!