Limited war

A limited war is a war carried out by a state that uses less than its total resources and has a goal of less than total defeat of the enemy.^[1] It is very often the high cost of war that makes limited war more practical than total war.^[2]

In a limited war, a state's total survival does not depend on the outcome of the war. For example, when Augustus sent his Roman legions to conquer Germania, the fate of the Roman Republic was not at stake.^[2] Since 1945, nuclear weapons have made limited war become the normal type of warfare.^[3]

The United States has a strategic position that has made since World War II find itself involved in a number of limited wars.^[4] The Korean, the Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq were all examples of limited wars.^[4]

The goal of at least one of the parties in a limited war is to maintain its freedom and to preserve itself.^[3] The strategy that is often used, especially against a much stronger enemy, is to draw out the fighting until the other side gets tired and finally decides to quit.^[3]

That worked for George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.^[3] Although the British Army was the strongest army in the world at the time, the war dragged out until the British got tired of the war draining its resources.^[3]

The Taliban and other Islamist groups today keep their wars going trying to wear out their enemies in the Western world.^[3]

1. ↑ "limited war". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Ian Bertram (13 September 2016). "The Return of Limited War". RealClearDefense.com. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Taylor Dinerman (27 October 2011). "The Limits of Limited War". Gatestone Institute. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Spencer D. Bakich, Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars (Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2014), p. 2