Originally Posted by
HPL
I can probably agree with most of your post, but do have some doubts about the bolded part. Some of our more reliable friends since WWII were totally broken by us and then occupied for years (and still have large US bases on their soil), so sometimes hearts and minds can START at the end of a gun barrel. Certainly a demonstration of fairness and even kindness needs to accompany that gun barrel, but it can be necessary to get their attention first. That being said, I'd be just as happy if we would either do it like a real war with a maximum effort, crush the enemy, install an army of occupation (as we did in Europe and Japan) or stay out.