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Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

npr.org

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Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#61

Post by jimnotgym »

kqr wrote: post #36
usrnm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is basically only ever one country in the history of ever that has been able to do that I guess you mean the British empire? Or Dutch? Maybe Spanish?

I was thinking of the British Empire. Their naval technology was superior enough to overpower the distance term. I was under the impression the Dutch didn't really wage interstate war in the same sense, but rather that a bunch of paramilitary private organisations happened to fly Dutch flags. I have to admit I know very little about the Spanish case, but again I thought they mainly fought proxy wars with other Europe…

Well Spain had most of south America, some of the carribean and the Philippines. The Dutch had the Spice Islands, half a world away. Portugal had Brazil, Azores, a bit of India and a base in China.

France had most of continental Europe, with distances that were much greater comparitively, considering they only had horses and sail boats. They also had big interests in the Indian ocean, Madagascar for instance, and the Caribbean.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#62

Post by watwut »

bakies wrote: post #45
rbanffy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combined with a coup.

Is it a coup? Maduros government is still in control

Yes, but Maduro is not. His former right hand is in charge and Rubio is controlling her. It was not regime change, but an internal coup helped with foreign soldiers.

New leader is equally oppressive, but this time guided by American admin.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#63

Post by RenThraysk »

tialaramex wrote: post #21

To "win" a war you must have specific and measurable goals. If your politicians start a war but cannot articulate such goals, you're going to lose. They'll assure you they will win, but they've already lost. They are bad at their jobs, why did you hire these morons?

If the goal is to deny Iran nukes then it's been succeeding.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#64

Post by jimnotgym »

fnordsensei wrote: post #37
usrnm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is basically only ever one country in the history of ever that has been able to do that I guess you mean the British empire? Or Dutch? Maybe Spanish?

And didn’t Genghis Khan more or less go to war with most of the known (and some of the unknown) world and for all intents and purposes win?

Without airplanes and powered ships too. A much bigger feat than the modern US vs Afghanistan.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#65

Post by throwup238 »

usrnm wrote: post #19
kqr wrote: post #12

It's not exactly rocket surgery, is it? Because they are fighting on the other side of the world. I feel like the article glosses over this way too quickly. It's not surprising the US aren't winning. It's surprising they are at all able to do something that resembles waging war at that distance. Wars are incredibly hard to fight away from home. On the other side of the world? There is basically only one country in th…

> There is basically only ever one country in the history of ever that has been able to do that I guess you mean the British empire? Or Dutch? Maybe Spanish?

Wiping out the natives isn’t the same thing as waging a war. Even from the beginning the European empires had very tenuous control over their New World colonies* and once they had to actually fight wars against well equipped European colonists to defend their control, it was a disaster for them (Bolivar, American Revolution, French and Indian war, etc).

The closest counterexample is probably the partitioning of China but that’s got its own mitigating factors

* they couldn’t even enforce the most basic sovereignty like when Spain introduced the New Laws and the encomenderos were like “lol no”

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#66

Post by lo_zamoyski »

tialaramex wrote: post #21

To "win" a war you must have specific and measurable goals. If your politicians start a war but cannot articulate such goals, you're going to lose. They'll assure you they will win, but they've already lost. They are bad at their jobs, why did you hire these morons?

> why did you hire these morons?

The democratic process is the selection of incompetent people by unqualified people.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#67

Post by watwut »

ReptileMan wrote: post #17

Because the military industrial complex is acting like socialist jobs program. If the USA could produce 4000 tomahawks per day, instead of 400 per year the Iran thing would be over. Also USA is very sensitive about the other side's civilian deaths.

> Also USA is very sensitive about the other side's civilian deaths.

Its literally bragging about the oposite while intentionally killing civilians.

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#68

Post by jimnotgym »

greenoracle9 wrote: post #47

It depends on what "win" means. The US can win the opening military phase pretty decisively. The part that keeps failing is turning that into a political end state that can survive after the shooting slows down.

Which requires troops in the ground, a large civil administration, and a way of making some ofthe existing powers in the civilian population feel like they are better off under you

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#69

Post by Georgelemental »

rbanffy wrote: post #14
one33seven wrote: post #5

Depends on the war. Venezuela was quickly won.

So was Russia's campaign to destroy the social fabric of the US. Without a single shot fired even!

Yeah, that Russian influence is really pernicious. Did you know that the vast majority of Members of Congress receive financial support from the pro-Russia lobby? And that leaders in both parties regularly tout their "devotion" to "our greatest ally" Russia? The Prime Minister of Russia has made 14 trips to the White House. He recently gave a speech to a joint session of Congress, receiving standing ovation after standing ovation from most of the chamber. We are currently fighting a war on his behalf. Many US states have laws restricting their citizens' right to boycott Russia. And so on…

Re: Why is it so hard for the U.S. to win wars?

#70

Post by dudefeliciano »

jmclnx wrote: post #11

First the meaning of "war" needs to be defined. FWIW, in the US, only Congress can declare war. IIRC, that really has not happened since Korea. Also since WW2, none of these countries posed a real danger to the US Public, plus people in the US are not invested. Compare what the public in the US had to do in WW2 compared to these "wars". If the life style of the Average US person is affected like in WW2, then you can…

> First the meaning of "war" needs to be defined. FWIW, in the US, only Congress can declare war.

The Korean War was not approved by congress. And I don't see the point of bringing semantics into it. Are you saying that the Vietnam War, to take one, was not a war because there was no formal declaration of war?

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