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This does not surprise me at all. I noticed something peculiar and unsettling in the days immediately after 9-11. The op temp was so fast and days so long that it was a while before I could start to put the pieces in place. Firstly while there was a huge amount of bathos about the trauma of the lives lost and the impact on grieving parents and wives and children there was (deliberately I now am convinced) no full throated roar of anger and determination for revenge from government leaders or military leadership.

I have no use for FDR, but read his address to Congress asking for a declaration of war after Dec 7, 1941. No one in the Bush administration said anything like ‘treacherously attacked’ Day of Infamy that will live in history’.
Instead there were prayers for the dead and tears and admonitions not to blame Islam or Muslims for the events of 9-11. No US military commander said anything like Halsey's remark ‘The only place Japanese will be spoken is in hell when we finish with them.’ Made as he stood on the bridge of the Enterprise as it steamed into a burning and smoking fleet anchorage at Pearl Harbor. Even more disturbing (and this is to this day truly disturbing to me) was the way general officers conducted themselves in the days immediately after 9-11. Instead of radiating a determined can do attitude and exuding a positive relish for the opportunity to crush and destroy those who had dared attack their country and homeland in such a vile and treacherous manner one say a lot of worried, distracted, and dismayed men. There was lots of angry lashing out at subordinates, especially civilians and a great deal of frenzied CYA and often patently stupid and unnecessarily expensive CYA to correct stupidities cravenly enacted to save a few dollars during Clintontime. Overall my take was that the men one looked to for leadership were themselves demoralized by an enemy who had thumbed his nose at all the elaborate and expensive operational templates and deliberate planning cycle products the military (or at least the Army) are so proud of. The enemy had won a huge psychological victory in the opening minutes of this new war without a name. Instead of leaders we had uniformed bureaucrats and mangers. Instead of unyielding firmness from all parts of the political establishment we had whimpering and the start of a strong anti-war movement. Much or rank and file America has not changed as witnessed by the fidelity, courage, tenacity and diligence of the men and women of the armed forces during the Iraq and Afghanistan operations. Our leaders have changed and have neither nerve or conviction or even just brute courage.