Just a few days ago someone made here an interesting observation: It's the long wars that cause the Americans trouble, and that's apparently more relevant than the difference between regular and irregular opfor.
Let's call this the "Powell" view.
They appear to be mutually exclusive, the Churchill and Powell view - at least if applied to the same period.
I suspect that the Powell view is more correct. The Americans may be able to figure out the right thing after a poor start, but ever since the early sixties (and if you apply a neutral view: really since '50) they either
* succeeded quickly because the enemy was either no match in any category other than local knowledge or because the enemy blundered even more hardly
OR
* they blundered so hardly that the mess was beyond repair, and the Americans only figured out what they did wrong, not how to repair the mess.
The solution to the problem is of course simple: Restrict yourself to actual strategic defence of yourself and your formal allies.
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