alan1
Gold Member
War is not won by declaring victory. It is won when one party admits defeat.
There are only a few ways to make them admit defeat, that is to either destroy their ability to continue fighting (killing people and/or destroying resources), destroy their will to fight (usually by killing people), or scare them so badly that they fear they will all be killed if they continue.
The way to win is to be brutal, cold and vicious. You have to be willing to use whatever means necessary to win, then do it.
But when it comes to some societies, they don't care about their civilians, they don't care about their infrastructure, they don't care about anything. Those cultures have nothing to lose and therefore you can never defeat them.
Sounds like you have a defeatist attitude, you'd make a lousy tin-pot dictator or super-power head of state.