The study of prior campaigns and battles will give insights into the factors that influenced their outcome. These factors include but aren't limited to political, social, economic, religious, and geographical factors. These factors may still be relevant to operations in those same areas. It is only through careful study that this can be determined. America is involved in conflicts today whose roots lie in social and religious factors. Those conflicts are being fought over the same ground that have seen the armies of Alexander the Great, Nazi Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the American Army. This essay will show how religion has played a significant role in American military history and how the geographical factor of key terrain remains relevant many years later.

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