Vastly expensive but a failure in reality

February 19, 2026

A great article by Warwick that sets out the gigantic resources devoted to the most unproductive economic activities imaginable. Given that vast expenditure one would normally expect a military covered in glory. But what do we see?

Stalemate in Korea, defeat in Vietnam, defeat in Afghanistan, defeat in Iraq, defeat in Ukraine.

Major triumphs for that military – Panama with a population of a few hundred thousand, Granada with a population of a few hundred thousand, Haiti with a population of a few million. The only major win was the first gulf war.

The wins were against opponents that were either tiny in size, population or economy and were accompanied by slaughters of civilians and /or mass damage to civilian economies.

None of these wars, invasions or bombings, and there are many more, were against an enemy of even remotely comparable size or military strength. The other growing powers have learned serious lessons from this US favour of industrial might over long term and successful strategy. They have been clever in developing asymmetric warfare that now drains the US exchequer without anything like comparable expenditures.

All US war games around an invasion of China show a convincing win by China.