History Main / HopelessWar

* Almost every iteration of the ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'' storyline in ''ComicBook/XMen''. In the future, the world is overrun. The Sentinels have TurnedAgainstTheirMasters so even baseline humans aren't safe. Someone is sent to the past ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' style because there is ''no'' restoring the world in the future. Many big-name X-Men who are usually immune to even temporary ComicBookDeath in the present are long dead. As the present characters rush to prevent it from happening, the future characters fight to [[SanDimasTime give them "long enough" to do it]], as opposed to winning, which is often accepted from the beginning as impossible. The animated versions make it less bad - but less bad doesn't mean "good," it means "all the FamilyUnfriendlyDeath must take place offscreen, and we're spreading the storyline over long enough that we can't KillEmAll straight away, but it's ''still'' a miserable world to live in and not letting it ever come to be is humanity's only hope."

* In ''Series/MortalKombatConquest'', Shao Kahn was at war with the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, while trying to defend his realm from being overrun by a AmazonBrigade of BeePeople. [[spoiler: It was hopeless -- for his enemies. In the finale he quit holding back and just sent his Shadow Priests to [[KillThemAll kill everyone]] -- ''[[DownerEnding including the heroes]]''.]]

* [[http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/ "The Eternal War"]] is a single game of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} II'' has been running for '''ten real-life years.''' The world is locked into a stalemate that has lasted [[ForeverWar nearly 2,000 years]]. Thanks to [[NukeEm nuclear warfare]] being a daily occurrence, the Earth is a mire of [[PollutedWasteland radioactive swamps]], and, as a result of the constant war and lack of any arable farmland, [[KillEmAll 90% of the world's peak population in 2,000 AD has been wiped out by 4,096.]] Anyone that steps outside of a city [[DeathFromAbove is nuked.]] Cities can't build improvements because 100% of all labor is needed to [[WeHaveReserves replace units killed at the front.]] The world is ''1984'' after 2,000 years.
** There are three main factions, the Americans, the Vikings, and the Celts. There were also minor factions remaining, like the Sioux. While life isn't great for any of them, it is likely pretty freaky being a one city state in a world where nukes are casually thrown around everywhere.

* The late part of the second half of the Amaris Civil War in ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' was this for the Amaris forces. The first half of the war involved Amaris completely taking over the Terran Hegemony in a bloody and well-planned coup that was executed almost flawlessly. The second half involved the Star League Defense Force (SLDF) fighting back against the coup, starting with completely conquering Amaris' home empire, the Rimworlds Republic, in only three years. After resting and refitting, the SLDF then attacked Amaris' Terran Hegemony, centered around Earth. However, Amaris had used all his time building up his defenses, and the SLDF couldn't actually break through the defense satellite network around Hegemony territory without absolutely horrific and untenable losses. [[OhCrap Then they got lucky and found out how to subvert the defense satellites completely]], and in this late part, the civil war became a Hopeless War for Stefan Amaris. Unable to keep his enemies back, the SLDF utterly trampled Amaris' forces, carving a path through Hegemony territory until they managed to reach Earth, by which point everyone but Amaris knew that the war was lost, with all the previously neutral powers (who were content to sit and wait for a likely victor to emerge) threw their weight behind the SLDF. With his holdings reduced to literally one planet from an empire that had once spanned hundreds of stars, Amaris was offered a chance to surrender and [[WhatAnIdiot refused]]. The war on Earth lasted for two ''more '''years''''' before Amaris was inevitably defeated.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The Soviet military theorist Alexander Svechin separated all wars into two categories: 'Wars of Annihilation' whose outcome was chiefly determined by the military efficiency of the combatant organisations, and ''Wars of Attrition' whose outcomes were chiefly determined by said organisations capacity for replacing their losses. If the combatants have sufficient military efficiency, replacement capacity, and political will to prosecute it until the final victory/defeat then an Attritional conflict can be utterly ruinous even for the victor.
* The UsefulNotes/WarOfTheTripleAlliance. Paraguay decided that it would be a good idea to invade Brazil and crushed their army. Then, as if that wasn't enough, they went to war with Argentina and Uruguay at the same time. Paraguay won early victories, but ground down over six years. The war only ended with the complete conquest of Paraguay by the Alliance and the death of their dictator. Over half of the prewar population of Paraguay died before they finally surrendered. It got to the point where the Roman Catholic Church decided to allow polygyny (the "multiple wife" type of polygamy) because so many men had died there weren't enough husbands.
* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar was initiated by the Confederates under the presumption that it would be a quick and decisive engagement. By no means was it imagined just how long it would drag on, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties even for the most strategically insignificant of skirmishes such as at Gettysburg, and result in the absolute economic deconstruction of the South, resulting in an AfterTheEnd scenario whose aftershocks continue to reverberate to this day.
** Union chief of staff Winfield Scott predicted at the beginning of the war that it would last four years and require a complete blockade of the South, along with a slow strangulation accompanied by massive battles of attrition. This was derided by just about everybody as the "Anaconda Strategy" and Scott was soon ousted from command. As it happened, the war followed his prediction in almost exact detail.
** The war might have been over soon had the North been adequately prepared for war. Instead they were caught on the wrong foot after the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter. The War department headed by the corrupt and incompetent Simon Cameron failed to meet the challenge for immediate mobilization and organization.
** If you watch the excellent Ken Burns documentary about the war, you can't help but wonder how many excellent opportunities to win the war right then and there George B. [=McClellan=] squandered throughout the first years of the war. True, Lee was a competent military leader, but more often than not all his competence got him was getting away, bleeding the (superior) Union forces and living to fight another day. Once competent commanders were put in command on the Union side (Sherman, Grant etc.) the economic, manpower and technological advantages of the North began manifesting themselves in CurbStompBattle s, though the South always remained a dangerous foe in every individual battle.
** After a while, the South's goal wasn't even to ''win'', but instead to achieve recognition of the Confederacy by European powers (similar to what the United States itself did in the Revolution). They almost got that... and then Antietam ended in a draw and Lincoln used the opening to release the Emancipation Proclamation. Suddenly the Confederacy lost every chance of such recognition; if Britain or France recognized them as a sovereign country, they would be declaring support for ''slavery'', which was something they would never do. This left the South's only hope with Northern stupidity, and after 1863 that was in short supply. And then a few months later their attempt to break the Union's will to fight by raiding Washington backfired with the decisive Union victory at Gettysburg rallying support for the war (with the final Confederate charge in that battle frequently referred to by historians as their "high water mark").
* During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, the uprising of the Vendée against the National Convention. If it wasn't this from the start it soon became this. An [[RagtagBandOfMisfits assemblage of badly equipped, ill-trained and badly armed peasants]] against the largest and in many ways most modern army in Europe. Some of the former officers and aristocrats who were asked to lead the "Royal and Catholic Army" felt compelled by their sense of honour and loyalty (to the king, the church, or their fellow Vendéans), but had no illusions how it would end. For instance, Maurice Gigost d'Elbée said: "it's the fight of the earthen pot against the iron pot".
* UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's final campaign leading to his defeat at Waterloo. For all that the day was won by the resolve of UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington and Blucher's arrival as well as Napoleon losing his edge finally, the campaign was hampered from the start by the fact that Napoleon's army hadn't recovered from the Russian invasion as well as the 1813 Battle of Leipzig. Their only hope was for Napoleon to somehow pull off a stunning victory and this time the magic was gone.
* The guerrilla campaign the last remnants of the Republican forces carried still out until 1949 after the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar.
* A lot of the countries that Germany invaded and occupied during the opening year of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII felt as though they were trapped in an example of this trope. Many of them surrendered after very short periods of time - epitomised by Denmark who, knowing that their small area and ''very'' flat terrain would make the Germans' task incredibly easy, surrendered after just ''TWO HOURS'' in order to spare their people the pain of a war that they didn't have a hope in hell of winning.
* The last leg of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was a pretty good example for the Nazis. The foot soldiers obeyed Hitler till the bitter end, despite knowing fully well that German defeat was inevitable. Any government and people ''not'' convinced that they were about to be exterminated by near-human beasts (i.e. [[RedScare the Communist 'Asiatic hordes' under Jewish domination]]) would have sued for peace. Compare this to the end of World War I, when the previous German government chose surrender when it became clear that they were less than a year (at best, and six months at worst) from total military defeat; sparing their country the ravages of a drawn-out war on their own soil, but also conceding to the monetarily crippling and emotionally humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The consequences of this decision was the creation of the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic.
* Japan at the end of WWII. By the end, they were literally fighting the whole world. Germany had surrendered and Italy, along with others of Japan's allies, had pulled a HeelFaceTurn, leaving Japan to fight on alone against The Allies. This was the phase of the war that added the world 'Kamikaze' to the English language. Even after [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], [[GeneralRipper several generals]] had an audience with the Emperor wherein they ''demanded'' the right to fight on. The reason why the Emperor surrendered remain a subject of debate but it's possible the Soviet invasion of Japan played a part (better occupation by the US than occupation by the Soviets). It's ''certain'', however, that the realization that his enemy had the original WeaponOfMassDestruction and he didn't, and could never get it in time, had a rather large influence on the Emperor.
** Recently released documents showed that Japan's high command realized that the war was lost as early as the end of the Guadalcanal campaign (''February 1943''), but they kept fighting because they couldn't see a way of ending the war without losing face. So the war continued for another two and a half years until the atomic bomb placed them in a situation where they could no longer pretend that they still had a chance.
** WWII was this for Germany and Japan as a whole on a larger scale; in the long term, their early successes could almost be described as illusory and postponing (and worsening) the inevitable. The Soviet Union, after the sudden end of [[VillainTeamUp the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]], alone outproduced Nazi Germany by a factor of 6 to 1, to name just ''one'' Allied Power.
* The UsefulNotes/IranIraqWar of the 1980s, a decade long stalemate which achieved absolutely nothing. Saddam's Iraqi military was too hopelessly corrupt and unmotivated to make any headway despite adopting chemical weapons, and too much of the Iranian military was inexperienced and ill-trained for them to make any headway either despite their superior staffwork and motivation. When one side is gassing villages and the other is sending runners to clear landmines by foot, neither side is expressing much hope for the aftermath.
* The Bosnian War was this for the Bosniaks until 1994. After being abandoned by Serbia and the combined Bosniak-Croat offensive it briefly became this for the Republika Srpska with a little subversion: The Bosnian Serbs returned in time to the negotiation table and got the best outcome of the war.
* Pretty much the entirety of Native American interaction with the colonizing Europeans on two continents. Attempts by native populations to resist European colonization and maintain self rule were ultimately hopeless in the long run regardless of any transitory victories, given disparities like the Europeans' technological edge and their introduction of new diseases.
** Smallpox is one of those diseases and one that can destroy an army. It's estimated that smallpox killed about 90% of the North and South American Indigenous populations during the early parts of the the Age of Exploration.
* The Western Front of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI seemed like this for years. There were great offensives on both sides, millions died, but the front lines didn't move. It took [[DisasterDominoes a series of events]], Russian and Italian victories against Germany's allies, the arrival of the United States, the October Revolution and the Spring Offensive to force Germany to surrender.
* The Italian front of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. For the Italians, because their officers would continuously send them attacking well-fortified Austro-Hungarian positions uphill in the face of large artillery and machine gun concentrations. For the Austro-Hungarians, because no matter how many Italians died in futile attacks, [[WeHaveReserves they could replenish their losses]] (in fact the Italian commander in chief Cadorna, knowing that his army was underequipped due to [[ObstructiveBureaucrat endemic corruption in the bureaucracy]] and the only previous commander in chief who understood modern weapons died of heart attack before he could make any impact, was ''counting on this'') while the Austrians couldn't, and Italian artillery was superior and ''growing''. Then, thanks to the Russian collapse freeing up the troops from the Eastern front and temporary German help in the form of assault troops, the Austro-Hungarians [[HopeSpot broke through Italian lines at]] [[CurbStompBattle Caporetto]]... And things got even worse, for them: the Germans were transferred on the Western front, the part of the offensive sent to occupy the area with most of the Italian weapon factories was obliterated on the Grappa massif by a ludicrous concentration of artillery even for Italian standards placed there exactly for that purpose, the Italians may have been at their limit of manpower but were ''still'' more numerous ''and'', as they were now fighting for the defence of their country, [[LetsGetDangerous had suddenly started to fight like demons]], Cadorna, who was incompetent as a field commander, had been replaced by the more versatile Armando Diaz, [[ParanoiaFuel Italian special forces started being everywhere]] (they even dropped leaflets on ''Vienna itself'' just to prove they could have bombed the city), and Austria-Hungary ''had exhausted their reserves''.
* Some see the ''War On Drugs'' as this ([[http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php including some law enforcement]]). It must be noted that the ''War On Drugs'' is similar to the fight against crime that all countries have to deal with on one point: both are impossible to win strictly speaking and it's mostly a struggle to keep them below controllable levels for the foreseeable future. Unlike crime however, arguments against drugs are no longer as widely accepted as before with the rise of racial disparity in terms of prosecution, causing a lot of people to turn against the war on drugs like the aforementioned law enforcement of L.E.A.P..
* Afghanistan, especially after the Wiki Leak files made it seem ''bleaker''. There's a reason it's known as the "Graveyard of Empires"; the [[HistoryRepeats British, Soviets, and Americans]] all tried to extend their control there, only to get bogged down in an endless conflict with almost nothing to gain. There aren't many local resources of note, and its only strategic use is as a corridor between South Asia and Central Asia, hence its long status as a buffer zone between viable empires in those areas.
** The main challenge isn't so much conquering Afghanistan but rather controlling it. The mountainous terrain and tribalism of ethnic groups resulted in a divided region hostile towards the idea of a central government. Most notably, after failing to invade Afghanistan the first time, the British managed to swiftly invade and subjugate Afghanistan in a second attempt. As for how they succeeded, it came down to the British quickly installing a puppet leader and then immediately pulling out, ensuring that they wouldn't be bogged down in an insurgency.
* UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was devolved into unending conflict against terrorist groups. Originally aimed at combating Islamic terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy global conflict. Yet after more than 20 years, thousands dead and trillions of dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant. Even worse, the military conflicts resulted in more terrorism with traumatized civilians turning into radicalized militants and unstable warzones becoming power vacuums for new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. At the same time, nations around the world have became more authoritarian with the use of mass surveillance, mass incarceration and militarized police at the expense of civil liberties. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror will ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.
* [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars The Second Punic War]] was this for Carthage, as Rome's strategic advantage came from [[TheAlliance leading an alliance of many Italic peoples]] [[WeHaveReserves that allowed them to raise multiple armies with little trouble]], an alliance that Hannibal, in spite of his efforts, could not break where it counted. This became evident after the Battle of Cannae, [[CurbStompBattle in which most of the Roman army was destroyed]]: Hannibal hoped that his victory would break the alliance and scare the Romans into suing for peace, and to make sure he sent an ultimatum to Rome, but while many Greek colonies, the Samnites and even Capua (the second largest and most prosperous city of Italy after Rome itself, and as close to be a Roman city as it could at the time without having voting rights) did switch sides and the Macedons (from Greece) saw this as the right moment to settle their own dispute with Rome's allies in Greece, the Etruscans, the Umbrians and the Latins, that is the largest (and, in the case of the Etruscans, the richest) Italic peoples and the ones placed right around Rome, remained loyal, resulting in Rome quickly raising enough troops to [[DeathOfAThousandCuts torment Hannibal's army with guerilla tactics]] and attack all of Hannibal's allies (Macedons included) ''and'' his bases in ''Spain'' and still have some spare manpower and replying to Hannibal's ultimatum by ''demanding the rent of the public land occupied by his camp''. ''[[FromBadToWorse Then]]'' [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere the Macedons made peace with Rome]]...
** The Third Punic War even more so, from the Carthaginian perspective. Imagine the situation: your once proud civilization, which used to have a great empire stretching across your known world, has been reduced to a single city and the land immediately around it. You've been beaten, ''twice'', by a people for whom war is the national pastime, and now they're coming to finally finish the job. Their territory covers the entire western Mediterranean, they've proven time and time again how good they are at war, and now 80,000 of them are outside the gates. When they get in - and, really, you know they will - they will kill or enslave ''everybody''. And there is nothing you can do to stop them.
* The UsefulNotes/LusitanianWars. Not matter how many victories Viriathus and the Lusitanians scored over the Romans, Rome's sheer imperial enormity and amount of resources and manpower ensured that any lost battle for them would be followed by the arrival of an even bigger, angrier army. Even worse: very unlike Arminius's cold and harsh Germania, Hispania was a succulent territory due to its immensely rich natural resources, warm climate, and political significance after the Second Punic War, which means Rome would just ''never'' give up trying to conquer it. Viriathus eventually realized this and capitalized on a particularly nasty Roman loss to impose a peace treaty that would turn the Lusitanians into free allies of Rome, hoping it to end the conflict forever, but Rome would only accept peace in their own terms and broke the treaty in less of a year. When Viriathus was murdered by his own emissaries after those were bribed by Roman general Caepio, any possible option for the Lusitanians that weren't submission and conquest was definitely gone.
** The last phase of the UsefulNotes/CeltiberianWars was much worse for the Numantines, as while Viriathus had at least enjoyed the support of most of his tribe and many other peoples that joined his army, this new conflict was essentially a single, insignificant city against all the power of Rome. They beat the odds many times through sheer guts and a smart usage of Numantia's natural defenses, as they had done in the past against a much less focused Rome, but when the Roman senate decided ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill and sent to Hispania the man who had conquered and destroyed Carthage, it became a matter of time that Numantia suffered the same fate.
* The Jewish Revolts against the Roman Empire can be seen as this. You have on one end a group of people who are fighting for their faith, taking cities and defending them to the last man, or fighting guerrilla campaigns that needle the enemy's weak points. On the other side, you have one of the most powerful empires in existence, going to enormous lengths to bring out and break the revolting cities, up to and including ''moving mountains''. When it ended, it resulted in the expulsion of ''an entire religious group'', and came at a massive cost to the Roman Empire.
* The Syrian Civil War has become one of these. The Government and allies, Rebels, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) and Kurdish groups are in a war against each other [[ForeverWar with no end in sight]] and the Rebels themselves are not a single entity and are in fact several groups with ideologies that range from secular democratic to Islamic extremists that are no different from ISIS themselves and unsurprisingly infighting is common to the point that some fight other groups than fighting the Government or ISIS. As of 2019, the government and the Kurds are in control of 62% and 27% of the country - the largest out of all factions - and they have began pacification process between them while ISIS has largely collapsed, though several independent jihadist groups still operate independently in Syria. Everyone is willing to kill civilians to get rid of their enemies using suicide attacks, chemical weapons and shelling civilian areas without mercy just because they are under enemy control. A large amount of Syrians are either dead or fled the country and most of the country is in ruins so even if one side wins Syria will no longer be the same.
** It is also worth noting that there are about 38 countries involved either directly (Air strikes, boots on the ground, military advisers...) or indirectly (financing and/or arming one or more of the many sides) turning this conflict into the biggest proxy war since the Cold War days.
* UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar was, simply put, the most devastating war ever fought on European soil (and yes, that's also counting ''both'' World Wars) and is the starting point for wide spread [[WarIsHell depictions of war as a living nightmare]] for good reasons. What started as a power struggle between Catholics and Protestants in the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire eventually escalated into a conflict were everyone was fighting each other for territorial control and changing sides as they saw fit. Nobody was safe from the war as mercenary armies frequently raided villages to sustain their armies, causing mass starvation among the civilian population and worsening the effects of the already devastating epidemics caused by constant relocation of troops. Armies would also frequently kidnap women and children to be used as either servants or prostitutes, causing entire generations to be born fighting in constant war and knowing nothing about outside world. High desertion rates due to unpaid salaries among these armies would only cause further havoc among the civilian population as these deserters [[DangerousDeserter would quickly turn to banditry]] to make themselves a living. For a while, it really looked like it was going to become a ForeverWar as ''nobody could afford to stop the armies from fighting'' and it was much easier to just pay them by raiding the enemy lands over and over again. The war only stopped after the Holy Roman Emperor was forced to pay all the bills, finally giving the victors a cheap way to exit the war and pay their troops. It remains the longest continuous war ever fought and it's estimated that about 1/3 of the Holy Roman population died in the war. To put that into perspective, UsefulNotes/NaziGermany lost about 8% of its population during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII
* Many people who work in social services and mental health occupations with lower-income and at-risk persons and populations, as well as those served by those workers see the struggle for mental health and personal freedom in the face of an apathetic and dehumanizing society as this trope.
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* Afghanistan, especially after the Wiki Leak files made it seem ''bleaker''. There's a reason it's known as the "Graveyard of Empires"; the British and the Soviets both tried to extend their control there, only to get bogged down in an endless conflict with almost nothing to gain. There aren't many local resources of note, and its only strategic use is as a corridor between South Asia and Central Asia, hence its long status as a buffer zone between viable empires in those areas.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* The Kami War from the original Kamigawa set of TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering was this trope from the perspective of the mortal races, with the exception of [[CompleteImmortality Lord Konda]] and his most zealous followers. The kami went to war with the mortal world to recover That Which Was Lost, a piece of the reigning kami known as O-Kagachi, the Kami of the barrier between the mortal and spirit worlds. The kami literally embodied every aspect of the plane, including the very souls of mortals, and with the exception of those kami slain by the [[WarriorMonk yamabushi]], the kami who were defeated would merely return to their realm and come back later to fight anew. Even so, the war lasted twenty years, only ending when Konda’s daughter Michiko and That Which Was Lost defeated O-Kagachi and turned Lord Konda into [[TakenForGranite a statue]] [[LiterallyShatteredLives before shattering him.]]
[[/folder]]

* The Kami War from the original Kamigawa set of TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering was this trope from the perspective of the mortal races, with the exception of [[CompleteImmortality Lord Konda]] and his most zealous followers. The kami went to war with the mortal world to recover That Which Was Lost, a piece of the reigning kami known as O-Kagachi, the Kami of the barrier between the mortal and spirit worlds. The kami literally embodied every aspect of the plane, including the very souls of mortals, and with the exception of those kami slain by the [[WarriorMonk yamabushi]], the kami who were defeated would merely return to their realm and come back later to fight anew. Even so, the war lasted twenty years, only ending when Konda’s daughter Michiko and That Which Was Lost defeated O-Kagachi and turned Lord Konda into [[TakenForGranite a statue before shattering him.]]

* The Kami War from the original Kamigawa set of [[TabletopGame/Magic:TheGathering]] was this trope from the perspective of the mortal races, with the exception of [[CompleteImmortality Lord Konda]] and his most zealous followers. The kami went to war with the mortal world to recover That Which Was Lost, a piece of the reigning kami known as O-Kagachi, the Kami of the barrier between the mortal and spirit worlds. The kami literally embodied every aspect of the plane, including the very souls of mortals, and with the exception of those kami slain by the [[WarriorMonk yamabushi]], the kami who were defeated would merely return to their realm and come back later to fight anew. Even so, the war lasted twenty years, only ending when Konda’s daughter Michiko and That Which Was Lost defeated O-Kagachi and turned Lord Konda into [[TakenForGranite a statue before shattering him.]]

* The Kami War from the original Kamigawa set of [[TabletopGames/MagicTheGathering]] was this trope from the perspective of the mortal races, with the exception of [[CompleteImmortality Lord Konda]] and his most zealous followers. The kami went to war with the mortal world to recover That Which Was Lost, a piece of the reigning kami known as O-Kagachi, the Kami of the barrier between the mortal and spirit worlds. The kami literally embodied every aspect of the plane, including the very souls of mortals, and with the exception of those kami slain by the [[WarriorMonk yamabushi]], the kami who were defeated would merely return to their realm and come back later to fight anew. Even so, the war lasted twenty years, only ending when Konda’s daughter Michiko and That Which Was Lost defeated O-Kagachi and turned Lord Konda into [[TakenForGranite a statue before shattering him.]]

* The Kami War from the original Kamigawa set of [[CollectibleCardGames/MagicTheGathering]] was this trope from the perspective of the mortal races, with the exception of [[CompleteImmortality Lord Konda]] and his most zealous followers. The kami, who went to war with the mortal world to recover That Which Was Lost, literally embodied every aspect of the plane. Also, with the exception of those kami slain by the yamabushi, the kami who were defeated would merely return to their realm and come back later. Even so, the war lasted twenty years, only ending when Michiko Konda and That Which Was Lost defeated O-Kagachi, the Kami of the barrier between worlds, and turned Lord Konda into [[TakenForGranite a statue.]]

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was devolved into unending conflict against terrorist groups. Originally aimed at combating Islamic terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy global conflict. Yet after more than 20 years, thousands dead and trillions of dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant. Even worse, the military conflicts resulted in more terrorism with traumatized civilians turning into radicalized militants and unstable warzones becoming power vacuums for new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. At the same time, nations around the world have became more authoritarian with the use of mass surveillance, mass incarceration and militarized police at the expense of civil liberties. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror will ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.

* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Exulant'' novel details the {{Scary Dogmatic| Aliens}} [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humanity's]] obsessive war against all other aliens in the galaxy. As the story opens they've been besieging the ''Literature/{{Xeelee| Sequence}}'' center of operations in the center of the galaxy for several thousand years. The Xeelee are, well, just doing their thing and occasionally zapping the annoying primates.

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was devolved into unending conflict against terrorist groups. Originally aimed at combating Islamic terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy global conflict. Yet after more than 20 years, thousands dead and $8 trillion dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant. Even worse, military conflicts lead to more terrorism with traumatized civilians becoming radicalized militants and unstable warzones becoming power vacuums for new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. At the same time, nations around the world have became more authoritarian with the use of mass surveillance, mass incarceration and militarized police at the expense of civil liberties. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror will ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was devolved into unending conflict against terrorist groups. Originally aimed at combating Islamic terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy global conflict. Yet after more than 20 years, thousands dead and $8 trillion dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant. Even worse, the war lead to more terrorism with traumatized civilians becoming radicalized militants and the instability created power vacuums for new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror will ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was devolved into unending conflict against terrorist groups. Originally waged to combat Islamic terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy wars around the world. Yet after nearly 20 years, almost a million dead and $8 trillion dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant and even worse is that the political destabilization lead to the creation of new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror would ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.

* The Syrian Civil War has become one of these. The Government and allies, Rebels, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) and Kurdish groups are in a war against each other [[ForeverWar with no end in sight]] and the Rebels themselves are not a single entity and are in fact several groups with ideologies that range from secular democratic to Islamic extremists that are no different from ISIS themselves and unsurprisingly infighting is common to the point that some fight other groups than fighting the Government or ISIS. As of 2019, the government and the Kurds are in control of 62% and 27% of the country - the largest out of all factions - and they have began pacification process between them while ISIS has largely collapsed, though several independent jihadist groups still operate independently in Syria. Everyone is willing to kill civilians to get rid of their enemies using sucide attacks, chemical weapons and shelling civilian areas without mercy just because they are under enemy control. A large amount of Syrians are either dead or fled the country and most of the country is in ruins so even if one side wins Syria will no longer be the same.

** The main challenge isn't so much conquering Afghanistan but rather controlling it. The mountainous terrain and tribalism of ethnic groups resulted in a divided region hostile towards the idea of a central government. Most notably, after failing to invade Afghanistan the first time, the British managed to swiftly invade and subjugate Afghanistan in a second attempt. As for how they succeeded, it came down the the British quickly pulling out after disposing the original leader and installing a warlord as a puppet leader, ensuring that they wouldn't be bogged down in an insurgency.
* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Originally waged to combat Islamic terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy wars around the world. Yet after nearly 20 years, almost a million dead and $8 trillion dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant and even worse is that the political destabilization lead to the creation of new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. Much like the War on Drugs, many question whether the War on Terror would ever end or if even terrorism can be defeated with military action.

** Phyrexia: Originally a five year story-arc consisting of enemies to the entire Multiverse made of both machine and flesh. Originally defeated only through a huge war and the sacrifice of many main-characters to the story. Phyrexia is back as of "Scars of Mirrodin" and have turned the plane of Mirrodin into "New Phyrexia" despite the best efforts of the Mirrans to fight them off. The last humans and other Mirrans are holed up in tiny refugee camps, alive and free only because the victorious horrors can't be bothered to kill them as long as they aren't a threat. Which they aren't.

** The Tau may be the most "hopeful" or "positive" civilization in the setting -- as long as you ignore the concentration camps, the fact that their race has been [[MindControl under the sway]] of impossible to disobey avatars of TheVirus for millennia, etc. They even have active scientific progress and actually understand their technology. The problem? Because they're completely un-psychic their faster than light travel is much slower than that of other factions, and they're right smack dab in the path of the Tyranids... Oh, and one of their generals appears to have broken out of their racial mind control, which is a ''very very bad thing'' as the leaders of the race have spent 5000+ years on a breeding program to make their warrior caste the biggest, baddest, most bloodthirsty Tau possible, under the assumption that they'd never, ever be able to disobey. While Tau society is relatively stable within their sphere of influence, their constant innovation means they might be able to come up with effective counters to the orks and Tyranids given enough time, and the aforementioned renegade is still noble and focuses on the Tau's enemies, their overall presence in the galaxy is minuscule compared to other factions, and with their poor understanding of the Warp limiting their FTL capabilities it's likely to stay that way for some time.

** One small relief is that the war is hopeless for Chaos too. Tzeentch, the God of {{Magnificent Bastard}}ry, is in fact in a HopelessWar ''with himself''. Tzeentch would '''die''' if he ever won decisively as he'd have nobody to scheme against and nothing to change if he ever won, so he deliberately sabotages his own plans and creates plans which run contrary to each other by design. Tzeentch is powered by specific emotions, however, so there is one way for the Imperium to defeat him. All they need to do is, uh, eliminate hope, planning, and change from the galaxy.

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Originally waged to combat Islamic terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy wars around the world. Yet after 20 years, thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars spent, Islamic terrorism is still rampant and even worse is that the political destabilization lead to the creation of new terror groups like [=ISIS=]. Much like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror has no endgame or clearly defined enemy that can be defeated by military action.

* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Originally waged primarily by the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and France to combat Islamic Terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy wars around the world. Yet after 20 years, thousands of lives lost and trillions spent, terrorism is still rampant and the campaign inadvertently lead to the creation of new terror groups like [=ISIS=], which formed by taking advantage of political instability and exploiting disillusioned locals to form a quasi-government. Much like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror has no endgame or clearly defined enemy that can be defeated by military action.

** The main challenge isn't so much conquering Afghanistan but rather controlling it. The mountainous terrain and lack of common nationhood resulted in a divided region that is inhospitable towards a central government. Most notably, after failing to invade Afghanistan the first time, the British managed to successfully invade and subjugate Afghanistan in a second attempt. As for how they succeeded, it came down the the British quickly pulling out after disposing the original leaders and installing a popular warlord as a puppet leader, ensuring that they wouldn't be bogged down in a tumultuous insurgency.
* The UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. Originally waged primarily by the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and France to combat Islamic Terrorism by military force after 9/11, the war soon expanded to nation-building, counter-insurgency and proxy wars around the war. Yet after 20 years and trillions spent, terrorism is still rampant and has even increased with groups like [=ISIS=], which came to power by seizing the power vacuum in war-torn regions and recruiting disaffected youth radicalized by the constant wars. Alongside the thousands of dead soldiers, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced, which in turn lead to a migrant crisis in much of Europe.

* Some see the ''War On Drugs'' as this ([[http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php including some law enforcement]]). It must be noted that the ''War On Drugs'' is similar to the fight against crime that all countries have to deal with on one point: both are impossible to win strictly speaking and it's mostly a struggle to keep them below controlable levels for the foreseeable future. Unlike crime however, arguments against drugs are no longer as widely accepted as before with the rise of racial disparity in terms of prosecution, causing a lot of people to turn against the war on drugs like the aforementioned law enforcement of L.E.A.P..
* Afghanistan; especially after the Wiki Leak files made it seem ''bleaker''. There's a reason it's known as the "Graveyard of Empires"; the British and the Soviets both tried to extend their control there, only to get bogged down in an endless conflict with almost nothing to gain. There aren't many local resources of note, and its only strategic use is as a corridor between South Asia and Central Asia, hence its long status as a buffer zone between viable empires in those areas.
** Contrary to popular belief that Afghanistan is unconquerable as shown by the Greeks, Mongols, Mughals and British. The real challenge is holding onto and ruling it given the lack of a central government and the hostility of Afghans towards outsiders. Most notably, after their disastrous defeat in the first invasion of Afghanistan, the British invaded Afghanistan a second time albeit successfully but quickly left the country after replacing the local warlord with a puppet leader. The real lesson is that conquering Afghanistan is easy but ruling it is hard.

* Much like in the comics section, the BadFuture of ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''. The war against the Sentinels can't be won, because there's a limitless supply of Sentinels, who can learn and adapt to their enemies techniques, and they're evolving super-powers of their own. What's left of the world is a burnt out wreck, and there's no visible signs of humanity left, just [[HumanitysWake ruined cities everywhere]].

** If you watch the excellent Ken Burns documentary about the war, you can't help but wonder how many excellent opportunities to win the war right then and there George B. [=McClellan=] squandered throughout the first years of the war. True, Lee was a competent military leader, but more often than not all his competence got him was getting away, bleeding the (superior) Union forces and living to fight another day. Once competent commanders were put in command on the Union side (Sherman, Grant etc.) [[RealityEnsues the economic, manpower and technological advantages]] of the North began manifesting themselves in CurbStompBattle s, though the South always remained a dangerous foe in every individual battle.