National Security: Long war

When engaging or escalating a war, the national command authorities must do so with purpose. Fundamental to this pre-war analysis is to determine what is the purpose of the conflict; what are we trying to achieve? Dozens of follow-up questions arise, such as: what is the mission; can we accomplish this in a reasonable amount of time; what are the risks; if the outcome is achievable, is it worth the cost; and finally, how do we achieve peace and bring our troops back home? These are basic questio