Back around 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall the cartoonist Tolles, then from Buffalo, NY, produced a two panel cartoon.  The first panel showed an areal view to the Pentagon with the caption: "Planners at the Pentagon are working hard on how to bring the Soviet Union down."  The next panel showed a quadragon version of the pentagon with the caption: "Planners at the newly downsized quadragon are working hard on how to bring the Soviet Union back!"  That captured it better than any pundit I read.  There was panic in the M-I Complex when Democrats started asking: "Where is the peace dividend?"

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."