Quote Originally Posted by rborum View Post
Can a theater commander ever say publicly or to his CINC that his theater is not "winnable" (however that is defined)?

Is there historic precedent for making such an assessment?
When the war is clearly not winnable. At that point, what has the commander to lose? For an American historical precedent, Robert E Lee did it at Appomattox, and history hasn't condemned him for the loss.