WHY AMERICA LOSES WARS

THE UNITED STATES FINDS ITSELF INVOLVED IN ONGOING WARFARE BECAUSE THE COUNTRY’S LEADERS NO LONGER KNOW HOW TO THINK ABOUT WAR

“FLAWED IDEAS ABOUT FIGHTING HAVE UNDERMINED AMERICA’S ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND, WAGE AND WIN WARS”

Author: Donald Stoker Publisher: Cambridge University Press Price: £22 Released: Out Now

Leaving aside political bluster and ballyhoo, the unfortunate fact is that the US cannot claim meaningful victory in the armed conflicts it has waged since the end of the Second World War. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq – none of these wars ended in America’s favour. It might be argued that of the multiple conflicts, only the 1991 Gulf War could be considered a success. Not an impressive batting average for a country that boasts the world’s most powerful military machine.

American military historian Donald Stoker explains in his book that since 1945, the United States’ experience of war has been a frustrating one, full of stalemates, setbacks, and only occasional victories.

The author pins the blame for this dismal record on muddled thinking about ‘limited war’, particularly as it refers to standing armies confronting elusive insurgencies. Flawed ideas about fighting have undermined America’s ability to understand, wage and win wars, and to secure post-conflict peace.

The failure to devise a successful strategy for dealing with the challenges of limited conflict and bringing them to a conclusion has critically weakened the country’s approach to war. The bottom line, Stoker emphasises, is that victory matters. In war the costs of defeat are too high even when the survival of the state is at stake. “Your enemies draw lessons from defeat, often the wrong ones,” he says. “Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden looked at America’s failure in Vietnam and concluded the US was feckless and weak and thus not a credible threat.” Stoker believes that in wartime, leaders need to set proper political objectives and spend more time studying war termination. A successful outcome will be achieved by better thinking on what victory looks like.