My experience in the military was: Momentum, or as we called it in the Army “violence of action”. We may make a mess of everything we (the government) touch but we’re big and we still move really fast (comparatively). I saw first hand how many nations militaries (I assume their intelligence services are similar) are way more fucked up and incapable of moving to action. It’s not that we’re so good, it’s just that we have a, relative, bias for action. In battle at least, momentum makes up for a lot, including terrible plans.