Kill the enemy, destroy as much of his combat power as possible, with as little collateral damage as possible. Constantly seek out and destroy the enemy on his own turf; an offensive strategy is always the best. The Confederate army employed a defensive strategy and look what happened to them.
People talk about the, "winning strategy", as if there are an infinite number of strategies to choose from, and there isn't. You can employ an offensive strategy; static, or mobile. Or, you can employ a defensive strategy; static, or mobile.
Yeah, the political scene in country has to whipped into shaped, but that will never happen before the enemy is beat down and that has to happen, before you can start getting the political scene shaped up. We learned that in Iraq; once conditions on the battlefield improved, the political situation improved almost exponentially.