Sorry to confuse, the first Gulf war was exactly that, a war. I am lamenting the fact that our "leaders" have lied to us and taken us into repeated conflicts that we were ignorant of culture and langrage and have left our troops without the resources they need. Defining winning seems next to impossible. Before we went to Iraq the CIA warned about the three main groups and the three are still there and creating problems for the others just like they said would happen, in Afghanistan the Taliban are just waiting for us to leave as we support one puppet govt after another, just like Nam. There are plenty of tribal divisions there that prohibit a unified country.
In Nigeria the fighters from Mali pulled out because we branded them terrorists, they were doing a good job FIGHTING terrorists in Nigeria, will we have more losses? Is this our fault?
I. Newton's third law; for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction....not all of them just jump out at us either. We lack smart folk