War. What's it Good for? 07/09/2011

A war that the United States is involved in should not last more than two weeks.  It would be cheaper, it would save lives, and could end war altogether.

When we decide to enter into a conflict, we go all in — completely wiping out any doubt as to who won and instilling in the enemy the idea that it was a bad idea to upset us in the first place.  Unfortunately civilians would be killed.  They always are.

We fire all the assets we can at the country in question, invade, set up an interim puppet government, establish a capitalistic republic, and turn it back over to the inhabitants when they learn to behave.
We have established that it’s OK to kill an enemy (UBL and the drone attacks), but not OK to interrogate an enemy (KSM and the drone attacks to avoid the interrogation question).  A two-week war would indeed kill, while a 10-year war is torture.

The rest of the world would be mad at us, but they will always be mad at us and the anger for any particular conflict will fade. Rather than have that anger drawn out for years as we try to be humanitarian in the rules of engagement, bomb the country back into the stone age (which may not be all that far) and start over.

Planning and logistics - one month.  War - two weeks.

After a few wars all we would have to do is the planning and logistics.