Cooptire's post high lights the necessity for an unambiguous response. Unless they are especially dense, even without reading On War, The Art of War, or the Book of Five Rings, any body should be able to figure out that "the foe" they must defeat, whether across a battlefield or a negotiating table is not an army, or a nation, but the mind and the will of that nations Leader(s) That has been amply proven in Vietnam and Somalia. The reason that gangs are able to profit from extortion is because they have already demonstrated a willingness to employ violence. The fact that the same theory works in international relations is supported by the accepted version of the Cuban missile Crisis, Kennedy seemed prepared to use whatever means were needed, up to and including a Nuke exchange. The performance and determination of the Soviet forces were irrelevant because Khrushchev was not prepared to face the consequences.