Bro there’s no war in the modern era we would have ever lost if there were no such considerations as “hearts and minds” and politicking. You can’t slaughter with the kind of impunity that you’d want to in order to win, with all of the footage on broadcast tv and social media. The Russians in Afghanistan were brutal but that shit was the 80’s and it hadn’t become the media environment we’re in now. And we kind of fucked the Russians there. We’re America so it didn’t really matter a ton to the citizens here if Russians were killing mountain tribesman. We didn’t help the mujh cuz we felt bad for them, at all. No holds barred, (non nuclear) I’ll be humble here, the US fucking destroys any 1 other world superpower or nation without question. Like Cannae levels of destruction.