That really comes down to what you mean by “war” and “won”.
We won the Korean war by achieving our strategic objectives- we bombed NK back to the stone age, and effectively isolated them from the rest of the world.
Our wars in Central America achieved their objectives- US trained death squads raped and murdered the local populations into submission; US corporations have been free to dominate ever since.
On the list of 80+ countries we have invaded since WWII, I would say well over half of these misadventures have achieved their strategic objectives.
When you leave with the same kind of people in charge as there were when you arrived then you lost. The ‘strategic objectives’ started to revolve around how much money you could fleece from the US government and it made every conflict a loss.
Did we really win? We went in there and killed a bunch of people but even today the country hates us. The truth is the US hasn’t won a war since WWII. In order to really win you have to make peace with the population after you take over. The US doesn’t do that anymore. We just kill and create more enemies.
That’s all very idealistic, but in real life, containment is often a legitimate war aim. And if you’re invaded, ending the invasion is often victory. Wars are not fought to make people stop being your enemy, and there are only a few rare cases of post-war reconstruction where that has been achieved.
Disagree, pattern of history shows that wars can end with both enemies still intact and both claiming victory depending on how they each define victory, both privately and publicly.
If the goal of Desert Storm was to get Iraq to withdraw out of Kuwait, then it could be considered a success. There was no intent to make friends with the Iraqi people or remove Saddam from power. That was the second Bush’s mess.
Yeah, that was the objective of Desert Storm: to force Iraq back to within its own borders.
Bush Jr thought that was too narrow a goal and when he found a convenient though irrational excuse in 9/11, killed half a million Iraqi civilians in a pointless bloodbath. By comparison, the homicidal maniac Saddam and his regime killed a few thousand Iraqi civilians during his entire time in power (not counting the war of aggression against Iran, which led to about half a million casualties on each side).
Name one we have won since WWII?
That really comes down to what you mean by “war” and “won”.
We won the Korean war by achieving our strategic objectives- we bombed NK back to the stone age, and effectively isolated them from the rest of the world.
Our wars in Central America achieved their objectives- US trained death squads raped and murdered the local populations into submission; US corporations have been free to dominate ever since.
On the list of 80+ countries we have invaded since WWII, I would say well over half of these misadventures have achieved their strategic objectives.
When you leave with the same kind of people in charge as there were when you arrived then you lost. The ‘strategic objectives’ started to revolve around how much money you could fleece from the US government and it made every conflict a loss.
Desert Storm, but outside of that they’ve all been unsuccessful.
Did we really win? We went in there and killed a bunch of people but even today the country hates us. The truth is the US hasn’t won a war since WWII. In order to really win you have to make peace with the population after you take over. The US doesn’t do that anymore. We just kill and create more enemies.
I think the ones making the wars would consider it a win if they make a lot of money.
In almost every war, the US extracted a lot of money/resources, not to mention the killings made by military industries
Winning a war means a enemy is no longer a enemy. Its that simple.
That’s all very idealistic, but in real life, containment is often a legitimate war aim. And if you’re invaded, ending the invasion is often victory. Wars are not fought to make people stop being your enemy, and there are only a few rare cases of post-war reconstruction where that has been achieved.
Disagree, pattern of history shows that wars can end with both enemies still intact and both claiming victory depending on how they each define victory, both privately and publicly.
If the goal of Desert Storm was to get Iraq to withdraw out of Kuwait, then it could be considered a success. There was no intent to make friends with the Iraqi people or remove Saddam from power. That was the second Bush’s mess.
Yeah, that was the objective of Desert Storm: to force Iraq back to within its own borders.
Bush Jr thought that was too narrow a goal and when he found a convenient though irrational excuse in 9/11, killed half a million Iraqi civilians in a pointless bloodbath. By comparison, the homicidal maniac Saddam and his regime killed a few thousand Iraqi civilians during his entire time in power (not counting the war of aggression against Iran, which led to about half a million casualties on each side).