Planning for War, Planning for Victory

General Paul Vallely (ret.) tells Newsmax that the United States has erred by fighting wars without a plan for victory.

"We have seen a lack of leadership in the White House and a really stand up position of our Joint Chiefs of Staff in the military to make sure, if we're going to put our assets in jeopardy, our personnel, then we have to go in with a plan and a victory plan and end war as soon as possible," he said.

"We've got to go back to the basics of strategy, victory, and how we win wars when we put our Armed Forces out there.

"If we don't have a sound plan for victory," Vallely said, "I would not shed one more ounce of human blood in the Middle East."

In 2006, Senator Barack Obama said something similar:

[In] any conflict, it is not enough to simply plan for war; you must also plan for success. Much has been written about how the military invasion of Iraq was planned without any thought to what political situation we would find after Baghdad fell. Such lack of foresight is simply inexcusable. If we commit our troops anywhere in the world, it is our solemn responsibility to define their mission and formulate a viable plan to fulfill that mission and bring our troops home.