{"id":2254588,"date":"2024-05-28T19:36:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T23:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-west-ever-win-another-war\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T19:42:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T23:42:51","slug":"will-the-west-ever-win-another-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-west-ever-win-another-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the West Win Another War?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-the-west-ever-win-another-war%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254588&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The aftermath of Memorial Day sparks a pivotal query: Can the West \u200cstill secure victories in war? The absence of clear end goals, military prowess, and political will pose \u200bas hurdles. Public backing wanes without\u2062 tangible interests and explanations. Overwhelming skepticism erodes support for conflicts, yielding inconclusive, low-profile conflicts. Media narratives \u200boften sway towards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bob-seger-song-2-2-on-vietnam-in-1968-this-is-outstanding\/\" title=\"Bob Seger's 1968 song \"2 + 2\" addresses Vietnam superbly\">anti-war\u2062 sentiments<\/a>, shaping perceptions and decisions on military engagements.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s a big question that arises in the aftermath of Memorial Day, the day when we pay tribute to the Americans who have fallen on behalf of America, on behalf of our defense, on behalf of freedom. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That question is: Is the West generally geared toward winning wars anymore? Will we ever win another war? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to military conflict, the only thing that justifies an evil as great as war is victory. If you fight a war and lose, then all of the sacrifices that are made on behalf of that war are treated as disposable and dispensable. If you fight a war and find a way not to win, then you have spent blood, you\u2019ve spent treasure, and you\u2019ve made human beings sacrifice their lives for something that has not actually been effectuated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where is the virtue in that? The first rule of war is: Win. So the question for the West is, can we win wars anymore? Because it\u2019s been a long time since the West actually won a war. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can\u2019t really say that the West won the Afghanistan war. We didn\u2019t. We didn\u2019t win the Iraq War. That place is now a sectarian hellhole. The United States didn\u2019t win the Vietnam War. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Obviously, the United States won the first Gulf War in the sense that Kuwait was no longer dominated by Iraq. That did not end with the death of Saddam Hussein. He retained his power. But that led to the second Gulf War. The United States really has not won any major war in any serious fashion since the Korean War, and even that ended with an armistice. With that said, at least South Korea exists as a thriving independent state in the modern world, but that was fully three generations ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/ep-1973-member-exclusive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So why don\u2019t the West and America win wars anymore? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are three conditions to winning wars \u2014 three preconditions that have to be fulfilled to win a war. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First, there must be an actual end goal. There must be an answer to, \u201cWhat is the goal of the war?\u201d We have not really defined our goals in any war that we have entered in recent years, other than generalized victory, nor have we specified what exactly that victory would look like or what we sought to achieve in attaining that victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Second, there must be military capacity to achieve that end goal, which means building a military that is capable of actually attaining that goal. It doesn\u2019t always work that way. Sometimes the United States military is stretched too thin. Virtually all Western militaries have spent an extraordinary amount of time and money in the post-Cold War era trying to shrink the size of the military: light footprint militaries. That means, sometimes military ability is not up to what is necessary in order to achieve the end goal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the third, final, and biggest obstacle to winning a war that currently exists for the West is not lack of end goals, or even lack of military ability to achieve the end goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is the political willingness to take the measures necessary to obtain the end goals. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, there are some military means that a country is unwilling to undertake in favor of victory, such as, for example, dropping a nuke on a country to get them to decrease oil prices. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The real problem is that the West is no longer in favor of victory because political leadership and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/psaki-refuses-to-guarantee-that-taxpayer-money-in-stimulus-bill-wont-go-toward-abortions\/\" title=\"Psaki Refuses To Guarantee That Taxpayer Money In Stimulus Bill Won\u2019t Go Toward Abortions\">public support<\/a> for victory in war is totally and utterly lacking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even in places where the West isn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tucker-carlson-warns-bidens-crackdown-on-second-amendment-isnt-about-guns-its-about-control\/\" title=\"Tucker Carlson Warns: Biden\u2019s Crackdown On Second Amendment Isn\u2019t About Guns, It\u2019s About Control\">directly involved<\/a> \u2014 meaning America and Europe aren\u2019t directly involved, or we\u2019re just funding other people to fight wars \u2014 public support can no longer be maintained, even for the most anodyne political issues. That\u2019s a result of the public not understanding why we fight particular wars <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  not understanding the nature of war itself. That combination is absolutely toxic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lack of understanding as to why we fight particular wars stems from havingemptied the rhetorical barrel over and over again without actually explaining America\u2019s interest in particular conflicts. Politicians cite bumper stickers like \u201cDemocracy\u201d or \u201cOur Way of Life.\u201d While the American people want to feel ideologically motivated if they\u2019re going to war, that\u2019s necessary, but not sufficient.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We have to feel that we\u2019re right in a conflict, but there actually have to be real interests at stake. If there are not, the American people rapidly tire. That is why it was so overwhelmingly damaging to American foreign policy when the originally expressed motivation for the Iraq War \u2014 which was to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq \u2014 was one of the main motivations. When that turned out to be false, it undercut Americans\u2019 sense of why we were there in the first place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fighting for democracy can have two different meanings. First, we can mean that America\u2019s interest, as the world\u2019s largest and oldest democracy, is in preserving itself and our interests. But the other way that we generally use it is that we\u2019re supporting \u201cdemocracies against dictatorships.\u201d The problem is, that\u2019s inconsistent because the United States upholds a lot of dictatorships. For example, we actually don\u2019t want voting in Saudi Arabia because the population would likely vote for a terrorist government, as the Palestinian population did in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s very easy for critics to point out that many of the flaws that we sense in other countries are also present in watered-down form here at home. So when we say \u201cdemocracy against dictatorship,\u201d you\u2019ll hear critics on the far Right and the far Left say those things exist in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Quite often, that\u2019s not honest. They\u2019re comparing the Gulaging of opponents to the political prosecution of Donald Trump, for example. That\u2019s really bad. What\u2019s happening here at home is not the same as somebody being forcibly jailed in Gulags and then dying in mysterious circumstances in Russia. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that is an argument that is brought to bear when you use empty bumper sticker slogans like \u201cDemocracy\u201d or \u201cOur Way of Life\u201d without filling in the gaps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of this means that if upholding public support for a war is wanted, real American interests must be defended and explained. Yes, there must be an ideological interest in any sort of conflict, but those interests can\u2019t be purely ideological. They need to be material and practical. They involve things that require explanation, like supply chains, freedom of the seas, spheres of influence, and resource allocation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These things are complex, and they require explanations to the American public. The reality is that America is very powerful, particularly when it comes to freedom of the seas and trade. But in order to defend American interests in a muscular world, we must defend America\u2019s place in the world. That means, we have to understand America is an awesome place that ought to be defended.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We used to understand, on a general level, that America\u2019s place in the world was not only morally defensible, but we also used to understand it was good, as seen particularly in the context of the Cold War binary between the Soviet Union \u2014 which was, in fact, a truly evil empire \u2014 and the United States and its allies. That was an easy case to make in the post-Cold War era, but that has been radically undermined by several generations of indoctrination from a Marxist-led educational system teaching America is actually a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/qanon-shaman-reveals-elon-musks-gracious-offer-while-he-was-in-prison\/\" title=\"'QAnon Shaman' shares Elon Musk's kind prison offer.\">nefarious force<\/a> in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We in the United States are the luckiest people in history. Few of us have served in the military of the United States. The percentage of Americans who currently serve in the United States military is vanishingly small, which means the vast majority of Americans don\u2019t know people currently serving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Further, the vast majority of people in the military have not fought in a major combat operation. Only about 15% of members of the military have been in active combat. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the American public, this means our vision of war is typically World War II movies or video games in which there are no costs. Further, because we\u2019re so powerful and overwhelmingly hegemonic, there\u2019s very little cost to Americans in losing wars. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s also true on a personal level. It turns out that if your friends or family members are serving in the line of duty or have been killed in a war, you are much more likely to be invested in winning that war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But most Americans haven\u2019t sunk costs into a war other than money, so it seems much easier to get out of a war. It\u2019s also easier to say to get into a war when no one you know has actually spilled blood on behalf of that war. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then, add to that our legacy media, which are hell-bent on the Left-wing perspective that our enemies are justified.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When covering wars, the media in the West always start off on a justified quest for democracy. Then within months, the entire media have swiveled. They start talking about a Vietnam-like quagmire in which the truly morally righteous are the anti-war Left who are seeking to pull the West out of the death spiral of war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They keep replaying the Vietnam narrative, but instead of stretching it out over 12 years, they stretch it out over 12 months. For example: When Ukraine defends itself, that is democracy defending itself. But within months, it is a \u201cquagmire.\u201d The media begin saying the West needs an exit plan, asking, \u201cHow do we get out of this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The media start pumping out images of war, which are always hideous because war is truly hideous. Then public support collapses because we don\u2019t like ugly pictures on our television. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the result of that for America and the West more generally is small, bloody, ugly little wars that stay under the radar, the kind in which Barack Obama uses thousands of drones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those sorts of wars are fought because they are anodyne and don\u2019t require justification, and we don\u2019t even know about them. Then suddenly they explode onto the radar, at which point the media move to their scripts: \u201cOh my God, it\u2019s a quagmire. Why are we even there? Here\u2019s an ugly picture on your TV.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At that point, the West cuts and runs, leaving billions in equipment to our enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Something ugly happens when we run or attempt to conciliate evil so as to forestall war entirely. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now, America is not in a position to win another war. The best we can hope for is the status quo. That is a dangerous thing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  because of the members of our military. The members of our military are amazing and heroic, and they kick a** at their jobs. They\u2019re the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-ted-cruz-plans-resolution-to-support-arms-sales-to-israel\/\" title=\"Sen. Ted Cruz Plans Resolution to Support Arms Sales to Israel\">finest fighting force<\/a> in the history of humanity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re not losing wars because of them. We are losing wars because of our politicians; because of a media that hates the country; because of our educational system, which is also training people to hate the country; and in the end, because we, the American public, don\u2019t have the stomach for this stuff. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are further problems because our inability to win a war at home is symptomatic of something even more serious at home. If we can\u2019t win a war, that says something about what we think of ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The real reason America can\u2019t win a war is because much of America, in its bones, does not think we <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">should<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  win a war because to win a war would mean we are imperialistic and dominating. It would mean we are spreading our values elsewhere, which is supposedly bad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that\u2019s the problem. Once you, as a country, make the decision that your values are so bad they cannot justify winning a war, once you start believing that you as a country are so corrupt that you are a negative force on the world stage, the rest is a really short run.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Memorial Day, a crucial question lingers: Is the West still poised to win wars? With a tribute to fallen heroes, the pondering continues. Will victory in war be achieved again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":2254589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-76708274.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-76708274.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}