I think the first Iraq War is a better example, since they had clear goals (remove Iraq from Kuwait and completely obliterate its infrastructure) and achieved them in a short timeframe.
I think the difference there is while it was successful in stopping the invasion, it’s also clear in retrospect that the neocons weren’t happy with that and wanted to march all the way to Baghdad. So the first one was successful in the abstract but a failure of the ideological project, and in the second they got what they wanted in the first place and got a failure in the abstract as a result.
![[CW: Racism, violence] The war understander has logged on](https://preview.redd.it/3m9jkp5oo5nb1.png?width=588&auto=webp&s=7fa7857314d88bb2fea20e45a920c3ed2f4459d4){kind=link}
I think the first Iraq War is a better example, since they had clear goals (remove Iraq from Kuwait and completely obliterate its infrastructure) and achieved them in a short timeframe.
I think the difference there is while it was successful in stopping the invasion, it’s also clear in retrospect that the neocons weren’t happy with that and wanted to march all the way to Baghdad. So the first one was successful in the abstract but a failure of the ideological project, and in the second they got what they wanted in the first place and got a failure in the abstract as a result.