Are wars still winnable?

[Darman]

I know some of you have had prior military experience and I was wondering what you thought of this  BBC article:Spent force: Are wars still winnable?

It seemed inteesting, and not necessarily relevent to our game because we are still interacting between states and there are no non-state actors, yet. 

[Tanthalas]

From the man on the ground perspective, Both Afganistan and Iraq were winable.  What the general population fails to realise is post WW2 (the last honestly large sacle change goverments war) the last Japanease Soldier that fought the war didnt surender till sometime in the 1990s, and Allied troops in Germany were still being harased by local populations into the 1970s.  What we were trying to do in both countries would have required a commitment on the same scale as the WW2 ocupations... the American population lacked the colective will to do that, thus you get what we now have.

[Darman]

At one point the article does say that the military seems ready to move forward, that it is the civilian side of the decision-making process that needs to come to a greater understanding of the capabilities and limitations of purely military action.