The U.S. military's operational planners would be proud of Kamala Harris' campaign strategy.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday shows Democratic voters moving confidently in Harris' favor. The senator from California now trails Joe Biden by just 2 percentage points. It's a remarkable improvement on her standing prior to last week's Democratic presidential debate. And Quinnipiac's findings match with those of a CNN poll on Monday.

Regardless of their view of her policies, U.S. military planners would find a lot to like in Harris' strategy of pursuing, seizing, and retaining the initiative.

As the U.S. Army's Field Manual 3-0 explains, few elements of operational effort are as a crucial as those which "seize the initiative through decisive use of joint force capabilities." This, the manual explains, requires an effort "at the earliest possible time, forcing the enemy to culminate offensively, and setting the conditions for decisive operations." This can be necessary to "delay, impede, or halt an enemy’s initial aggression and to deny an enemy its initial objectives. Operations to gain access to theater infrastructure and expand friendly freedom of action continue during this phase" to "degrade enemy capabilities with the intent of resolving the crisis at the earliest opportunity."

Now compare those operational tenets to what Harris is doing.

She has certainly seized the initiative with "decisive use" of her capabilities. At the debate she employed effort "at the earliest possible time, forcing the enemy to culminate offensively." Going for Biden's metaphorical jugular, Harris threw the former vice president off balance and altered the terms of the contest.

Biden must now fight back, unveiling his own lines of attack at a time of Harris' choosing. And Harris' aggression was in fine military form: it most certainly has served to "delay, impede, or halt" Biden's "initial objective" of securing the nomination quickly and without much furor."

What follows?

Well, now we can expect Harris to push hard to draw support from Biden and thus "gain access to theater infrastructure." That infrastructure, in this case, is the Democratic Party's establishment of organizers, activists, and donors. We can also expect Harris to keep up her relentless attacks on Biden's credibility with a view to diminishing his momentum. Her intent: "resolving" the Democratic nomination battle "quickly."

It's quite the military operation. Perhaps Harris missed her calling.