The post Time To Relearn How America Can Win Wars appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

F-117 Critical Communications Target 1st Night Operation Desert Storm USAF Thirty-five years after Operation Desert Storm, the conflict remains the last major regional war fought—and decisively won—by the United States. That fact alone should give pause to anyone concerned with America’s ability to prevail in future conflicts against capable state adversaries. Yet the true significance of Desert Storm is not found in recounting the events of 1991 or celebrating a past victory. Its enduring value lies in understanding why it succeeded so decisively—and why the United States subsequently moved away from the very principles that made that success possible. It is time for a reset, for what is at stake in the current security environment demands America and its allies succeed. Desert Storm was not simply a triumph of technology, nor was it a product of happenstance or overwhelming numerical superiority. It was a carefully conceived and executed campaign that exploited the inherent advantages of aerospace power through an effects-based, systems approach to warfare. It demonstrated how strategic objectives could be achieved rapidly, decisively, and with minimal loss of life by focusing on outcomes rather than attrition, and by attacking an adversary as an integrated system rather than as a collection of targets. It centered on affecting the centers of gravity that allowed Saddam Hussein to wage war. Unfortunately, in the decades following Desert Storm—particularly after 9/11—the United States largely abandoned this way of war. Instead, it embraced a fundamentally different conflict model centered on prolonged, ground-centric campaigns of occupation, counterinsurgency, and nation-building. Leaders focused on restraining power more than adopting strategies that were focused on winning. Not only did those approaches devolve into endless whack-a-mole operations, but they failed to achieve our strategic objectives in either Iraq or Afghanistan. These campaigns were also poorly suited to the major regional—and…

---

Filed under: News - @ January 17, 2026 12:21 am