General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Willful Ignorance on Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party Foreign Policy [View all]eridani
(51,907 posts)The Civil War, which still holds the record even in absolute numbers for American casualties, lasted only 4 year. WW II was only 6 years for all participants, 4 for us.
Ike had sense enough to quit Korea while he was ahead. The Vietnam war kept draging on, 1961-1975, so the population eventually got disgusted with it. We have been in Afghanistan for 13 years and still have a presence in Iraq after 11 years, and people are getting tired of it. The ideal intervention is Granada--massive military power against a country that has none, and over within a week.
It's much easier to destroy a regular opposing army than to forcibly dominate foreign populations by invasion and conquest.. We can't afford to go on with it, period. It would be cheaper to turn the whole ME into a radioactive parking lot, but then we wouldn't be able to get at the oil.