Hot Wars and Cold Wars are often decided by which side can endure the most pain over an indefinite period of time. The Revolutionary War ended not because Great Britain could not win it, but the costs both economic and political became more than it could bear. The almost exact principles were on display in Viet Nam and Afghanistan where the pain of victory, even though achievable, was more than we could bear.
During the Cold War the Soviet Union’s creaky economic system, trying to compete with Western economies reached a point after 70 years of collapsing due to there was not enough revenue to maintain the empire. Now we are faced off against the world in a tariff war to restore manufacturing in the United States. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
