I'm not projecting nearly as much as you're predicting.
Your contention is that the mere pressence of laws making something illegal is not sufficient to stop one single individual from perpetrating the act, well, then ALL laws are flawed and worthless.
Your argument is that there is no individual battle in a war that can be called a victory unless in and of itself it can bring about the absolute defeat of the enemy. That you are not doing the right thing in a football field unless you go the distance on every play, and that merely advancing the ball is a intended loss.
You claim that I project, arguing from the position of one who can't be proven wrong, and not because of the strenght of the argument, but rather because there is no record of past performance to hold up as a standard to measure you with. Your entire argument, in simple terms, is "we would have done better".
I played a little football in High School, and I remember that the Coach used to say that there were two types of people involved in a football game: the ones watching the ball move are called spectators, the ones moving it are the players.
Which category did you fall into?