Steven Den Beste has an essay up that goes through the classic phases of large-scale conflicts after the other side has attacked first. Then, he explains how he sees the present War on Terror within that framework.
"In the first stage, you try to halt the enemy's campaign, or at least seriously derail it. Initially, the enemy has what in the game of Go is referred to as sente, and in war is generally referred to as initiative. The idea is to take that away from him, though you may not be able to hold it yourself.A bit long, but not overly so, and provides a needed dose of longer term perspective.The second stage is a holding action where you buy time, during which you work on building your own strength. Often there is a great deal of bloody combat involved in this, because it may require you to seek out battle on less than totally favorable terms, using less force than you'd really like.
But during this period what you are primarily doing is to prepare yourself to go on the offensive against the enemy. At this point you attempt to seize the initiative and to largely control events to your advantage until the war is over, and you've won it. (Assuming you do.)"
The thing we need to add in this very good essay by Den Beste is that our current situation in the "occupation" (reconstruction) of Iraq is totally wrong, has been obviously wrong for several weeks, and shows no sign of being "fixed". One of the most serious problems is the decay of the Democratic Party to an "America is at Fault" party that cannot involve us in a debate. I have a post at:
http://www.oraculations.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_oraculations_archive.html#200304352
We are about to blow everything we gained by refusing to deal with the water and electricity problems in the country, events covered today with a ton of links at: http://www.oraculations.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_oraculations_archive.html#200307031
Kids are dying from the water, there is no decision to just jam American contractors down their throats and repair the electrical grid, and the absolute refusal to stop the looters until yesterday is awful. This is not a Den Beste "setback", this is a Bush disaster and we could have anti-American riots on our hands by Tuesday.