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i think rekna touched on a very crucial point...
it used to be (from antiquity to the middle ages) that the definition of a victory was pretty clear-cut. you could tell who won very easily... the winners would be carting the losers stuff back home and the losers would have their leader's head posted on a pole outside their city.
perhaps because the stakes are exponentially much higher, today there are immeasurably more factors and considerations that are taken into account. can a major war be winnable at all? i don't buy the idea that everyone loses in every war, but the situation certainly appears to be more complex than it has in the past.
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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
~ Winston Churchill
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