[unishark]

> I guess that really depends on what you consider a "1-1 military battle." Gentlemanly warfare used to be people marching and staying in formation and going straight at each other until they died. With that battle strategy, the victor is generally going to be the one with more people covering more ground.

The US practically pioneered modern "all out war" with the civil war, which is certainly nothing like gentlemanly colonial wars. Trench warfare in WW1 turned every attack into an ambush basically. Of course by ww2, air power and moving fast with technology crushed that.

It's certainly important to add context to history by talking about the larger picture and how things play out practically. But we really don't need to replace every word with a metaphor that has a political statement behind it. Narrowing the argument to military objectives specifically (as opposed to political), and considering whether one side or the other has the ability to achieve them, is still important because when wars are against existential threats, those political gloves will come off.