Let us not confuse winning the war with winning the peace. The Allies' WWII experience is an example of winning the war and then winning the peace as well, largely because of the Marshall Plan. Compare this with WWI where the Entente won the war but lost the peace miserably. The American Civil War is another example of won war and lost peace. I submit that Desert Storm is another war that was won while the peace was not.

When wars are fought, they should be done so with the objective of establishing a better state of peace. In too many the wars, the victors have not followed this precept with the result being a resumption of fighting after a short breathing spell to recover enough to begin again.