Message #46108

[mccoy]

Steve, it's probably as you say, lack of understanding of alien cultures. A winning strategy requires an understanding of the culture you are going to fight. The USA won the Aghan and the Iraki wars but apparently was never able to understand the underlying cultures. This resulted eventually in a defeat.

In Vietnam, the strategy was all wrong from the beginning, the lack of understanding of local culture was incredible. Even though the reasons to engage in war were arguably sound (the domino effect of communist countries) the way the war was fought was so wrong.