This essay addresses the likelihood of "success" in two dimensions: (1) success in war and (2) success on the battlefield. The terms "war" and "battle" are often used interchangeably and the men and women who won the battles are often told that the war was lost. As a polity discusses the Just War Tradition (JWT) in relationship to a forthcoming war, the term "success" is squishy, malleable, quantifiable only in comparative terms, and politically charged. The definition of battles is the win and loss of men, material, and moral. These can be measured. The two terms should not be used carelessly, and the relationship between the two needs to be more carefully considered.
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Pauletta Otis (2024) studied this question.
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