A few more thoughts on war and conflict

A long time ago, after studying history, I came to a conclusion: Battles and campaigns may be won or lost on strategy and tactics, but wars are won or lost economically. Each side fights until either it no longer has the capacity to fight, or winning is no longer profitable.

In the American Civil war, for example, the south simply didn’t have the economic capability to field an army for the long, long term. The same thing happened to Germany in WWII. They ran out of stuff to wage war with. No more supplies, no more weapons, no more soldiers.

In Vietnam, it became politically unprofitable for us to continue the war, so we stopped fighting. The cost of lives and investment was no longer worth the outcome, so we quit.

Which leads me up to another conclusion. No-one really wins a war. The winner is the side that loses the least.

MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com