In the current media landscape, the political impact of military casualties depends on their virality. A non-visual event described in a traditional news article lacks the resonance of a graphic video shared on platforms like TikTok. This creates a grim calculus where policy is only influenced by losses that are visually shocking and widely shared.

Recent, pointless-seeming wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a new version of "Vietnam Syndrome." This public and political aversion to foreign intervention makes it nearly impossible for the US to commit to providing crucial, early support in conflicts where it may be necessary, such as in Ukraine.

Beyond immediate costs, prolonged conflicts drain stockpiles of sophisticated and slow-to-replace military hardware. The US has lost aerial tankers and a rare E-3 AWACS radar plane, of which it has fewer than 20. This rapid consumption of critical assets has significant implications for a nation's ability to fight future wars, a cost often overlooked in strategic planning.

Unlike nations that have historically endured massive losses, the United States has a low willingness to suffer casualties, which is a strategic vulnerability. Adversaries understand that American political will for a prolonged conflict is fragile and can be broken by simply waiting out the initial shock and absorbing blows.

Since Vietnam, the public's unwillingness to watch televised atrocities has made total war impossible. Conflicts now devolve into asymmetric battles where the weaker side bleeds the stronger empire until political will at home evaporates, making decisive "victory" a relic of the past.

Against an enemy employing asymmetric warfare, achieving total victory may be impossible without resorting to indiscriminate killing and infrastructure destruction. Since modern Western societies lack the moral appetite for such tactics, decisive military wins become elusive.

Beyond the risk of tactical mistakes, a critical ethical concern with AI in warfare is the psychological distancing of soldiers from the act of killing. If no one feels morally responsible for the violence occurring, it could lead to less restraint, more suffering, and an increased willingness to engage in conflict.

AI targeting systems excel at generating vast target lists for rapid, shock-and-awe campaigns. However, they are currently being applied to a slower, attritional conflict. This misapplication turns operational excellence into a strategic dead end, where the machine simply produces more targets without a causal link to defeating the enemy.

The US military's 30-year strategy, born from the Gulf War, of relying on small numbers of technologically superior weapons is flawed. The war in Ukraine demonstrates that protracted, industrial-scale conflicts are won by mass and production volume, not just technological sophistication.