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Present day wars involving the US have some significant differences to past wars. Previously wars were mostly two-sided, had comparable military forces and technologies, at least in the eyes of the combatants at the time, and most importantly, they ended!

The notable exceptions to this general trend are the successful barbarian invasions of civilized nations that had fallen prey to their own narcissistic tendencies, the fall of the Roman Empire being a prime example, and the wars of conquest conducted by technologically superior nations. The colonial phase of world history is an example of this, where predominantly European nations established dominion over other nations throughout the world either economically or where that failed, by military conquest.

Even these, however, usually concluded with the subjugated peoples recognizing their conquest. Only a few continued to oppose their dominators through armed resistance in the form of guerrilla warfare, significant examples being Afghanistan's resistance to British Imperial rule and Vietnam's to French rule, despite being part of what came to be called French Indo-China.

World War II ended with the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers, first Italy, then Germany and finally Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both sides recognized and acknowledged that the war was over. The US military was able to contribute to the restoration of war-battered nations on both sides, particularly through the Army Corps of Engineers aiding in rebuilding the infrastructure.

Currently we have two examples of "post-war" nations with occupation forces that include large percentages of US military personnel, Afghanistan and Iraq, which we can consider and compare. The "normal" military phase of the wars was brief and quickly decided. The US and allied nations military technology created an enormous disparity between the sides, but this has not resulted in an end to hostilities.

Although both nations are predominantly Muslim there are considerable differences in their ongoing situations. It is these differences that generate two completely different answers to the question posed as the title of this article. For Afghanistan the answer is "yes, possibly", for Iraq it is "probably not". The real world rarely gives definitive answers; it consists of many shades of gray rather than clear-cut black and white.

Afghanistan has suffered many years of conflict: the invasion by Soviet forces, the

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