Win the peace is a made up phrase , it’s bullshit.
We destroyed Germany and Japan in World War 2, militarily as well as their cities and infrastructure. The leaders of the allies lived and fought WW1. They realized not going for total victory would simply result in more catastrophic war later on, and they were right.
That’s my point, if you aren’t willing to do what it takes for total victory then don’t go at all. That’s how you end up in long drawn out campaigns that end up not meeting objectives, it’s dumb.
Every phrase is a made up phrase dumbass. Why you're hung up on trying to argue that point is beyond me. Wars are easily won by superpowers and if your only aim is to win wars on the battlefield then you're likely going to find yourself in near constant war. The object, at least for the civilized world is to be at peace.
Go to the library and find you some good books on world history. Rome won a lot of wars...they were brutal and often made slaves of their conquered foes. They had to keep fighting because people that have no hope or nothing to lose will choose to fight to the death.
Bill, Japan wasn't all that destroyed. Yes, we nuked two cities and firebombed Tokyo but no battles took place, no troops marched through the streets of the main island.
And did you not realize that Germany surrendered at the end of WWI? We had total victory and we rubbed their noses into the ground. Are you even remotely familiar with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles? Good Lord, there couldn't have been a more humiliating defeat. We went for and got a total victory...then we went too far.
We knew, the allies knew that they all had to continue to live in close proximity and that by destroying their economy we sowed the seeds of discontent that would later bubble up and result in another war.
We didn't know that bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki would result in their surrender. My father was only a few hundred miles off the coast of Japan when those bombs were dropped. We were waiting to invade the island D-Day style. We took their surrender so we didn't have to sacrifice thousands of troop that would have surely been lost.
You're right that we shouldn't get into wars unless we are going for total victory but we are cursed with having too much power and the knowledge that if we unleash that power on others there is a high likelihood that someone unleashes something like that on us. That's also the problem with spending $700B annually on our military. The old saying when your only tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail... another made up phrase but it's made up to deliver a message.