Why America's All-Volunteer Force Fails to Win Wars | Small Wars Journal

There is more to this than just occupying a land. The people must want you there. You must have a government in power that is not corrupt and is willing to help make their country better. We identify as Americans. No matter Jew, Black, Asian, or Gay: we are all Americans. Both Iraq and Afghanistan do not have a sense of nationalism. In Iraq it is tribe, then religious sect. Nobody identifies as an Iraqi. In Afghanistan it is self, then family. Heck, nobody there even speaks the same language. Neither Iraq or Afghanistan care who is in charge as long as the government leaves them alone. Unfortunately, they never do because it is corrupt. The government steals, rapes, and harasses it's people. They then back the locals that fight against the US and it's corrupt lackeys. First thing we need to win is establish a local government where the leaders are held accountable for their actions by US forces. If they commit a crime they are punished and published.

While a police advisor for the State Department I had a small outpost that was in my region in a nice little town. Nothing ever happened there then all of a sudden they were getting attacked nightly. We would have to QRF out to them every night to keep them from getting overrun. They were getting the shit RPGed out of them. They were loosing guys every night. We finally had a shura with the local leaders. Turns out the Afghan Officer in Charge had raped one of the village girls. They had went to the Chief of Police for the area to ask that he be prosecuted and the Chief did not do anything. Turns out this officer's father was a high ranking religious figure and the Chief did not want to loose his job, so he did nothing. The village leaders reached out to the Taliban and they were taking care of the issue by attacking the outpost with force. Because we had no power to remove this officer we were able to do nothing, but report what had happened. This officer was eventually promoted and moved somewhere else to rape again. As a father what would you have done.? I have a ton of those stories from my time in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last, we Americans always go in with the premise of "liberating" the people of the nation we are fighting. Americans, love freedom and will die for it. We think everybody else is the same. They are not. You cannot give people freedom. They have no skin in the game. Freedom must be taken at the tip of a sword. Blood has to be shed.

That is why we don't win wars

It can make a big difference. However, I think fighting smarter and not harder is the better way to go. I generally look at the example of the Soviet Union during WWII. They threw massive amounts of soldiers at the German army. Eventually they did fight their way to Berlin, but it cost them over 15 million lives.
Size mattered when two armies charged each pther with swords. The way we fight wars today is vastly different and doesn't always require the largest numbers.

I know COL Bacevich is very vocal about "preventative" wars as his son was KIA in Iraq. However I feel there's more to it than just sheer numbers. If anything Vietnam should have taught us that. I'd been interested in looking at risk assessment S-curves to this approach as there is a tipping point where more isn't always better.

I think if we really want to make conflicts shorter its time to look at the ROE's - shoot anything that doesn't say Owen when you say Garry vs. having to get shot at first and then running it up the command to engage is a greater factor in how much dirt gets chewed than to say troop size. I think an increase in troops without any changes to ROE's would produce exponentially more fatalities until that magic number is hit. As well the tactics used in asymmetrical wars I think need to be be broken down and reconstructed.

I'd like to learn more on his approach - I know he's written a book or two on this I just haven't yet read any - he's on my list.