Glory Does Not Last Forever Analysis

Glory does not last forever. To those who have experienced it fully, and its addictive nature, it is a cruel mistress that demands pursuit. It is the ubiquitous high school jock, clad in an aged letter jacket and basking in fleeting splendor that personifies this pursuit so well. More appropriately perhaps, it is the struggle of an international hegemon struggling battling an identity crisis because the recipe that, for centuries, has produced profound success no longer yields a palatable outcome. Dominic Tierney adroitly illustrates the struggle of this latter glory-seeker in his article Why has America Stopped Winning Wars? The United States exists in an age, he asserts, where conflicts are unwinnable. This assertion is not without its detractors, but the evidence offered stands up to analysis and critique. The United States no longer emerges as a clear victor in contemporary conflicts because the very nature of war and the definition of what it means to win are changing, novel enemies are emerging, and socio-political factors limit it in both scope and execution. It is difficult to win when the rules of the game change in the middle and becomes nearly impossible when one side forgets what they are playing for in the first place. Tierney …show more content…
The wars of the past, characterized by their massive scale and equally massive destruction, may have led to an expectation of the same for those of the future. Such is not the case as the courts of public opinion and political capital will only abide that action deemed absolutely necessary to achieve national ends. Thus, wars have evolved from total to limited and with this evolution the gains are limited in nature as well. As the decisive nature of war diminishes, so to does the ability to claim obvious victory – winning is