Akashma Online News

by Marivel Guznan |Akashma News

They walk among us, decorated in ribbons and stars. They hold degrees in strategy, military science, and global security. Men and women like Lt. Gen. William J. Hartman and Col. Laurie Buckhout—steeped in cyber warfare, intelligence command, and battlefield coordination. Their résumés read like a war college syllabus. Their service, decades long. Their minds, forged in the crucible of conflict.

On paper, these leaders are extraordinary. Seasoned generals. Cyber tacticians. National security architects. Yet despite all this, the United States has not won a war since Operation Desert Storm. And even that “victory” unraveled into decades of instability, emboldening warlords and birthing monsters like ISIS.

So we ask, with no malice—only urgency:

If the best-trained brass can’t win, what are they really fighting for?

Let’s break it down.

1. “Winning” Isn’t What It Used to Be

War has changed. Victory no longer ends with treaties or surrender. The modern battlefield is everywhere and nowhere—insurgents without flags, drones without borders, ideologies without nations.

Afghanistan. Iraq. Syria. Libya. The “enemy” shifts with each administration. So even the most skilled general fights a ghost with rules that vanish mid-battle.

And when the goal is ill-defined, or forever postponed, no one wins—except those selling the bullets.

2. Political Sabotage of Military Strategy

The brass may strategize—but execution belongs to Washington.

And in Washington, strategy is eclipsed by optics, reelection cycles, and lobbying dollars.

From the disastrous pullout of Iraq that gave rise to ISIS, to the haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan that betrayed both U.S. soldiers and Afghan civilians—our wars have been sabotaged from within.

Generals follow orders. But what if the orders are designed to enrich friends, not to defend the nation?

3. Wars That Were Never Meant to Be Won

This is the hardest truth.

Afghanistan: 20 years, trillions spent, no intention to build a nation—just to rent one.

Iraq: Invaded on a lie. Left broken, bleeding, and looted.

Syria and Libya: Proxy wars ignited, populations destroyed, stability traded for oil corridors and arms sales.


As General Wesley Clark warned: “There was a plan to take out seven countries in five years.” If chaos was the goal, then mission accomplished. War wasn’t lost. It was repackaged as policy.

4. Bureaucracy, Corruption, and the Military-Industrial Complex

Even the most principled officers—like Hartman or Buckhout—can’t outmaneuver the system Eisenhower warned us about.

A swamp of overlapping agencies. Procurement games. “Consulting” gigs. Retired brass going from battlefield to boardroom. Raytheon. Lockheed. Palantir.

The medals might shine, but the system is rusted.

5. Cyberwarfare: A War Without Glory

Our modern heroes now fight in digital silence. No headlines. No parades. Just servers breached, satellites hijacked, grids disabled.

Hartman and Buckhout may be winning battles in cyber arenas we’ll never see—but without transparency, without accountability, the public can’t know what’s won, or what’s lost.

6. Strategy Without Soul

Even the most refined tactics collapse without just cause.

Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. These weren’t wars of liberation. They were occupations disguised as peacekeeping.

Soldiers fought with honor—but the cause was hollow. And occupiers don’t win hearts. They ignite resistance.

So what’s the verdict?

The failure doesn’t lie in skill. It lies in the absence of truth, purpose, and restraint.

Our generals serve two masters—country and contract. And more often than not, they retire into the arms of the contractor who profits from the wars they once directed.

No PhD in war theory can redeem a battle fought for shareholders.

We opened with respect. We acknowledge the service, the dedication, the brilliance.

But now it’s time to flip the page.

Because behind every uniform is a shadow. Behind every “hero” is a name on a contract. And behind every failed war is a ledger soaked in blood.

Welcome to Part II   Blood Money and Broken Oaths — How America’s Wars Were Lost to Greed.