Do you actually believe that someone who intentionally
flys a plane in to a tall office building full of people is
at all concerned about what an "invincable" was going to
do to them in retaliation?

If fear of retaliation deters what we're facing now, let's
look at Isreal's response to the '72 Munich Olympics
Terrorist Massacre. Mossad hunted down and killed
every one directly involved - and that took 20 years.
Is Isreal safer today than they were in 1972?

Where to begin with the rest of your response to the
original question - what is your definition of "success"
in terms of either of the two current wars we're in?

Viet Nam was the result of fear of "communism" taking
precidents over history and facts. We saw the North
South conflict as a surrogate war between "communism"
and "the free world", rather than what it was - a civil
war between nationalists. The country was supposed
to have a free and democratic election in 1954 and
had that election been held, historians have agreed
that Ho Chi Mihn would have been elected president
of the reunited Viet Nam. And if that happened, France
would lose their holdings in the south - and they weren't
ready to do that. So there was no election and the
civil war began.

The driving motivation here, and in other conflicts
we've engage in, was nationalism. The Viet Namese
had driven out every "invincible power that attempted to
colonialize them - including China AND Japan, as
well as the French. OK - so the French don't produce
much of an army - but they tried to keep the south
of Viet Nam by force anyway - and also were eventually
forced to leave.

As for "the feminization of our country and our culture"
you do realize that half or so of the world's population
are females?

And "don't ask, don't tell" - the greatest conquering
army in history - Alexander's army, had a significant
number of homosexual warriors and Alexander was
probably at least bisexual if not homosexual.

In a world of established nations Might Makes Right
was true. The world has changed, and if we don't
deal with the world as it is then we better get better
at defining "success" before we we commit our
sons AND daughters, and our treasures to throwing
our weight around, thumping our chest and growling
"don't mess with us!".