On the avoidance of small wars

[Dayuhan]

Actually small wars can be done right. The Romans handled their provinces for quite a while that way. The US don't know how, the Brits have forgotten and the French have been reduced to minor interventions for a long time now.

Wrong problem, I think. The US doesn't know why, and you can't do "how" unless you know "why". If the policy objectives are uncertain, unrealistic, unclear, or just plain absent, the "how" is always going to be deficient.

The Romans knew why they were doing what they were doing: they were an imperial power, they wanted to preserve and extend direct control over subject peoples. The policy objective was clear. The Brits and the french once had that clarity, but they no longer do. The US doesn't have it, and while it complicates matters a lot, it's not necessarily a bad thing. An imperial America is about the last thing the world needs (IMO, of course).

It has more to do with the Grand Strategy (being the desired end result) and the political will than the ability of soldiers.

Is there a difference between "grand strategy" and "policy"? If so, what is it?

If you end up controlling the Saudi oil fields (for example) and the sea lanes to import the stuff there are no doubt benefits.

Unless you end up bleeding yourself into exhaustion trying to sustain that control. Great powers fall more often from hubris, overextension, and excessive ambition than from restraint and a focus on their internal affairs.

But we know who the war mongers are and know when wars are about to break out. We have had some laughs about my "three cruise missiles theory" but a serious case can be made for such short sharp interventions in order to prevent wars (where a lot less people die in the process).

What you typically overlook is to make this method practical you'd have to grant leaders an almost unlimited ability to decide where and when violence is applied, and the risk of that outweighs any benefit. You'd have to trust politicians, and nobody sane does that.

The US problem is their political system that allows 'very strange people' to be elected to the Presidency.

Deal with that issue and the problem goes away.

Yes, it's all down to that pesky and intractable phenomenon called democracy. Alas, we've yet to find a way to "deal with that issue" without creating far worse ones.