The ‘surprising’ part in my end comes from being jaded with how shallow so much media is today. It was refreshing to see details like this written down because it’s simultaneously obvious and true, and it lends credence to their analysis.
A think tank can be there to manufacture support for an ideological position, but it can also be used to do actual thinking.
A typical Western "military analyst" these days often comes with a law degree, MBA, or even a financial guy, sometimes with few years of service, or a stint in Westpoint, clinging for a claim of being "serious subject matter expert," and making money off that.
As I said few times over this week, a lot of them don't even know the difference in between a tank, and an APC, so bad it is really.
And Western politicians listen to them...
The latter kind is of course the origin of the whole concept, but one can't help feeling that the overwhelming majority nowadays is the former.