GarageWoodworks wrote:

Being 'perceived as lacking the will to fight does not make anyone more
vulnerable to attack.

Say what!? I guess that's why Germany was afraid to invade France.
Being perceived as lacking the will to fight is exactly one of the
reasons why countries are invaded and nations enslaved.

What makes a country vulnerable is being
unprepared for an attack. We were definitely NOT prepared on 7 Dec 1941.


That is a second vulnerability as well.

If you are always well prepared for attacks than you will not be
vulnerable
no matter how you are perceived. Perception is not relevant if you are
prepared.



If you look at France prior to WWII, they were well prepared (remember the
Maginot line?). If a country is prepared for attacks, but lacks the will
to fight, then the preparations are nothing but window dressing. Look at
the comments from Bin Laden himself. After we cut and run in Somalia after
losing troops, the perception was that America lacked the will to fight and
as soon as a few casualties were inflicted, the Americans would quit and
run away. Had we held our ground in Somalia and gone after the war lords
and Bin Laden (or vigorously attacked those responsible for the USS Cole),
it is arguably likely that 9/11 would never have happened. As it was,
although the US had the ability and was prepared to fight, the jihadists
believed that the US lacked the will to fight any protracted conflict.



--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough

--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough