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You could say that about the initial stage of the war, but can you maintain an occupying force for years against a sophisticated country? In that case, we would eventually run out of F-35's due to sabotage or maintenance issues.

This idea that the only thing that matters is what you already have creates a race - can you crush resistance before those who are resisting realize that you have limited long-term capability?

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The weapons used in an occupation are vastly different than what you use to initially defeat an opponent. Most occupations are faced with insurgencies equipped with small arms, not 5th generation aircraft.

In Iraq, we had time to spool up production of MRAPs to counter IEDs, and were pretty quick to deploy equipment that would aid in COIN warfare.

But MRAPs would be shit in a real war against a peer grade opponent; too heavy, too slow, confined to roads, poor overall performance.

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