The American revolution and the Vietnam war were winnable wars by the conventional Armies. They were lost because of poor leadership, political restraints, no public support, and failure to see and recognize the fight and adopt to it. There were no clear strategy, they did not know the enemy and had rules of engagement that were controlled and dictated by politicians. The enemy had the upper hand, they decide the pace, where to fight, how long the fight, and the duration of the entire engagement. It is difficult to fight and win when the enemy is unknown, they hit and run and a constant state of alert is needed. A war is lost if the strategy is rigid, the enemy is underestimated, leadership only knows of one way to fight and rules are controlled.
