victory in war these days is less a function of population or landmass than will, skill, and technological sophistication.
While I understand the logic you're using Tekboy, I guess the experience of Nazi Germany comes to mind. They possessed the technology, the skill, and certainly the will, to win WWII...
But technological and tactical advantage did them little good in waging and winning a full scale war of attrition against the numerical superiority exhibited by the US and Soviet Union.
Technology and unconventional style war fighting strategies are great for fighting limited wars, but should we find ourselves, god forbid, in an all out nation to nation fight to the death with a more populous nation, I would dare say that population and landmass would play a significant role in determining ultimate victory (or the will to perpetuate the war)...
A more personal example that pertains to the US would be Vietnam, where we possessed every advantage on the battlefield, and effectively were decisively winning the war of attrition (Tet almost completely wiped out the VC as an effective fighting force). But we lost the war due to the greater will, numbers, and motivation on the part of the NVA.
So while all the military bells and whistles are sometimes effective in effecting our more coercive (however much it consists of self-defensive) foreign policy, I'm not about to kid myself into believing it's some kind of panacea. Faced with an adversary possessing strong national will, our technology will be no more effective than the one Tiger tank against 6 Shermans scenario (we lost 6 tanks for every german tank we destroyed in combat).
And to a certain extent, these terrorist groups exhibit that extreme sense of will that may nullify our technological advantage, since they are willing to commit suicide to achieve their ends. They can be anywhere, including right here in the US, using whatever crude, but effective, weapons they can fabricate themselves from readily available materials... If only renting a Semi-Truck and slamming it into a crowd of innocent school children playing at recess.
Hawk |
