I saw a movie years ago called "Red Dawn". It starred Patrick Swayze (pre "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing"), Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and others. It dealt with a Russian invasion on American soil, and a determined effort by American teenagers (including the aforementioned) to stop them. Of course, there were reprisals against American citizens, but every time the Germans and Russians attacked, the effort of the good guys to defeat them intensified.
Well, in the course of the movie, when the Russians were taking losses, one of the Russian commanders made a speech that laid out a strategery that I think has parallels for us:
"You can only win a war by exterminating the enemy. Do you know what we are fighting? We are fighting Wolverines...small, ferocious animals. For them, you need a hunter. And you know, I am a hunter.
"From this moment on, there will be no further reprisals against citizens. This was stupid. Impotence. Comrades, if a fox stole your chickens, would you slaughter your pig because he saw the fox? No. You would hunt the fox, find where it lives and destroy it! And how do we do this?
"Become a fox."