Do we ever learn from history?

Each facet of the military is important, no one on its own can give a definitive win. If you do nothing but bomb the enemy, they just regroup and rebuild. If you don't have airpower, resupplying and support functions become a nightmare and hazardous.

In using nuclear weapons I'd say yes. in conventional warfare, I'd say no. Afghanistan for instance - the British tried and failed, the Russians tried and failed, we just haven't given up yet but have the longest occupancy.

BUT during Desert Storm we saw how devastating air power and long range missile attacks can be before boots go on the ground. We wiped out the Iraqi army from afar and THEN put the boots on the ground. Jr. should have learned that from Sr. Bomb them into the stone age and then go in. Saves lives on our part. Gives submarines something to do ie firing rockets that don't make the world go away.

Or, using the cold war mentality we had, Nuke 'em till they glow and shoot 'em in the dark.

I think some people have been spending too much time gleaning their combat strategy from Command and Conquer...

As a nation we seem not to learn from history. Thankfully at the tactical, operational, organizational design, equipment design and sometimes at the strategic level we have groups of dedicated military and civilian personnel who do their best to sort through lessons learned to modify the "way we do things" and review and analyse operational requirements versus capabilities of existing inventory, damage by wear and tear and kinetic, IED, etc to design and field or procure and modify equipment which either better meets operational and tactical requirements or meets ones which have never been met before.

COL Charles Williams, Sir, until the POTUS and Congress begins to realize cutting back and no boots on the ground does not work in this day and age. Conflicts are springing up in old familiar places. If they don't realize that dog don't hunt anymore, they are putting the troops that are deployed now in grave danger. ISIS reads the news and watches TV, so they can see how our government is lagging behind, and, they WILL, take advantage of that. Boots on the ground is the only way of stopping the worlds enemies.