| HN Mirror

>and also why our "defense" institutions would rather manage chronic, unwinnable conflicts rather than see any side achieve victory (Ukraine, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan) ... and also why our weapons / aid keep appearing on both sides of various conflicts

Huh? Citation needed. I've never heard of American weapons/aid appearing on "both sides" of any of these conflicts. Generally, these kinds of conflicts come down to Western weapons being used against Russian and/or Iranian weapons. Ukraine is quite obviously a proxy war between the West and Russia.

The reason the Ukraine war isn't being fought to win is because of the spectre of nuclear weapons use by Russia. Broadening the conflict carries that real risk. In Gaza, it is being fought to win, by Israel, but the cost is that they're losing the information war, as many countries accuse them of genocide. Afghanistan was a clear win by US forces, but then turned into the US propping up the civilian government they tried to institute with 20 years of military assistance against the domestic insurgency, and that failed when the US finally pulled out and the government collapsed to the Taliban. (Basically, the US wasn't willing to resort to the brutality needed to completely eliminate the enemy and change the local culture, so the whole project was doomed.) Iraq was a success; Saddam's government was destroyed and a new civilian government instituted, though it was at a huge cost and under false pretenses, but that government still stands today and many Iraqis (everyone who was oppressed by Saddam) are happier with the current situation.