The last war that the west actually won, WW2, we just killed everbody who got in the way.
The the ROE have changed over the years and now we can only shoot back if they shoot first.
Take out whole villages which would include the so called “moderate muzzies.” Pretty soon the so called “moderate muzzies” would realize that the radicals among them are getting the moderates killed. If the moderates don’t start getting rid of the radicals themselves, then they are not really moderates and bye-bye to them also.
You raise good points there. I’d suggest, though, that World War II was the last war “the West” (whatever that means) actually won because it was the last war we fought for the sole purpose of defeating an enemy. It seems that since then, all of our military campaigns (and by “our” I mean the U.S. in particular) have revolved around what might be called a quasi-colonial foreign policy — which means you can’t destroy an enemy if your ultimate purpose is to trade with them.