Well, if you read "The Soul of Battle," (1999) VDH then in essence said that he didn't think a western army of liberation could ever again successfully invade and liberate a people. That was just four years before we did it. He was wrong.
I point that out because I love VDH and use his "Carnage and Culture" as my textbook in one of my classes, but surprisingly, even HE lacks faith sometimes . . . which itself is a western cultural trait!!