Comments
"war fever" was over by about 2005, but by then following the fever had gotten us neck deep in Iraq.
Setting the "fever" argument aside, I believe the American people are satisfied that the ends derived from their mandate to President Bush in '01 have been met. Time to quit calling everything a "war" and get back to the long, hard business of being a superpower with global interests to maintain. Getting ourselves fixed to a couple of spots because we let them be labeled as wars is not smart business.
The Navy has work to do projecting power and keeping sea lanes open; the Marines need to be afloat and ready to conduct expedtionary interventions; SF needs to be plugged into a hundred different interesting spots keeping a finger on the pulse of who's who and what's what; and a much smaller army needs to regroup, reel in the troops from much of the current global footprint, and man, organize train and equip to deter wars or expand and deploy to fight the same. As to the air force, they too must deter now, fight if necessary and be able to project rapid deployment aspects of the regular Army as necessary.
BL, we've got work to do, and it isn't in Afghanistan or Iraq (or Africa, or Latin America, or any number of other places.).