21st century warfare

I personally think that boots on the ground days are over - it is too expensive and is not that effective. Afghanistan and Iraq showed that simple insurgency can stop any army, then it is just a matter of sitting them out.

Wars now fought in following ways - a) financially via trade wars, currency debasing and open and not so open government takeovers b) drones and cruise missiles. While we seeing early stages of this phase and all-around stalemate, just like WW1 trench warfare methods will get refined and someone will emerge dominant with optimal strategy.

I see traditional "big hardware" such as carriers as pointless and not at all cost effective way to fight wars as napoleon-era formations marching against trenches and machine guns.

So question is, why are we keep building these mega-expensive toys when even backwards Iran can effectively defeat them with soviet-era supersonic cruise missiles with costs of cents to thousands of dollars?

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