The three failing wars — and what each one proves:

• Russia invaded Ukraine and expected victory in days and got years of war, catastrophic casualties, massive equipment losses, and an economy permanently distorted, with Ukraine still undefeated.
• The USA attacked Iran to supposedly eliminate its nuclear capability on 28 February 2026; three months later, Iran's government is intact, its military is intact, its population has not surrendered, and the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
• Israel invaded Gaza in October 2023. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, genocide and ethnic cleansing have happened, and yet Hamas is not destroyed, there is no functioning administration, and there is no peace, nor any sign of when it might be achieved.

What the pattern tells us:

• Military superiority no longer translates into political victory.
• The post-war military-industrial complex that was built on the assumption that overwhelming force would produce military resolutions to conflict is failing in real time.
• Every one of these conflicts has increased instability, and not reducing it.
• The UK is now committed to spending 3% of GDP on defence, with no coherent explanation of what political outcomes that spending is supposed to achieve.

What actually works and what the UK should be promoting is something quite different:

• Diplomacy, international law, and multilateral institutions have delivered durable peace where military force has not.
• The post-war European settlement, built on economic integration and institution building, not rearmament, is the model that worked
• Patient negotiation and the politics of care are not weaknesses; they are now the only approaches to conflict resolution with an evidence base.

The UK is sleepwalking into a 3% GDP defence commitment at the precise moment three superpower militaries are demonstrating that military spending does not win wars. This video asks the question Westminster refuses to ask: what is it actually for?