Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness by Kenneth M. Pollack

It's not a perfect book, but it illustrates a lot of military failures that haven't really been encountered much in the West in the last 80 years.

I'm not aware of any mass desertions by Western armies.

There was in Vietnam which is why the US army ditched the draft.

Politically constrained. It's just the stated goal is impossible given the political RoE.

> It's just the stated goal is impossible given the political RoE.

People need to keep in mind tactical versus strategic success. For Iran, the military operation was a complete tactical success, it's just that the strategic goals — assuming there were any to begin with, which seems to be an unanswered question — were not, and it was questionable whether military operations were a useful tool to achieve them at all.

“War is the continuation of policy with other means.” — Carl von Clausewitz

'What is one's stated policy / goal, and is war a useful tool for achieve it', is a question that needs to be asked by civilian leadership. Sometimes (often?) the answer is "no".

What are you talking about here, exactly?

It looks like the strait is still closed, the Taliban is back in charge and Syria is run by a former ISIS fighter. I think maybe the point is that the US has put in a lot of effort and resources into these areas with no outcomes benefitting our country, or the the world even

None of that involved western soldiers running away from fight or being misled to leave the fight. So, again, what are you talking about here?