Well, I made it through the first paragraph and had to stop at this statement:
an undisciplined pursuit of practically every new jumbo jet that aircraft manufacturers rolled out
The facts are that Delta did not pursue the 747, 787, A330, A340, A380. It bought the MD-11 and a few 777, plus the stretched 767-400 (to go along with the 767-300 already in the fleet).
I guess I fail to see where the statement "an undisciplined pursuit of practically every new jumbo jet that aircraft manufacturers rolled out" has any basis in fact.
And here's another one:
Delta recruited Glen W. Hauenstein from Alitalia to move the carrier into underserved markets such as Kiev, Ukraine; Tel Aviv; and Nice, France
Uhhh . . . Nice service dates back to the PanAm route acquisition in the early 90's.