posted on Dec, 17 2002 @ 03:50 AM
Impossibly difficult: not the kleast because of the problem of defining "America": the current administration, the nation regardless of Presidents,
the people -which people? and so on.
In an ideal world, America would avoid win/lose situations: not everything is a boxing match or the toss of a coin.
However, if we take a very broad view of what's being said here, then it's hard to see how America could be in other than a no-win situation:
histroy has no lessons to teach about being the ONLY super-power: America has to write the guidebook, on the hoof, as it were.
And there is the bully/tough guy analogy- be it never so tenuous: how can one win honourably when one is bigger and stronger than all the rest.
Also, America seems to be at something of a loss to define satisfactorily what "winning" would be: who exactly would have to lose, and what would
that entail? How would a "victor" know he was a "victor" rather than the victor in just another battle?
One can imagine how "winning" the war of Independence, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War etc could be clearly - or clearly enough -defined;
but how does one win a "War against Terrorism"?