Quagmire...

Well and in this case what would be considered "winning" then?

The main problem with "winning" is that nowadays they havn't got the faintest idea who it is they are fighting.
Like that diplomat says they are fighting people in neighbouring valleys who have nothing to do with each other at all.
The wasted opertunity has allowed the conflict to devolve into thousands of seperate wars which will all have to be dealt with before they can deal with the real war that they should have dealt with years ago.