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Why, no wonder the Nazis, Japanese, and Commies beat us, their soldiers are so much tougher and insensitive than ours. Oh, and did you see how those tough-guy Talibans had us running with our tails between our legs in Afghanistan?

I think the Taliban was beat more by technology than anything else. Between Daisy Cutters, flying gunships, B52's, and soldiers equipped with extraordinary vision and communication equipment, the Medieval Afghanis fighting with 19th century equipment were far outclassed.

Although the Germans and the Japanese were a technological match for the Americans, they were trained with the mindset to die for their country. Patton and other great American military leaders trained our soldiers to think on their feet and make the other bastard die for his country.

This was all before we introduced women into combat roles. Today's women soldier has the benefit of advanced technology and the disproportionate numbers of men to women to tow the line. Lessen the technology and increase the proportion of women to men and we will definitely fall as the world's military power.

It takes more than technology to win a war. In the early '40s, America had just come out of its agricultural phase and a very high percentage of families were gun-owning. Many of the military recruits were marksmen before they entered the service. In some families whether you had meat on the table or not depended on it. By contrast, the Germans and Japanese were not gun-owning societies. There are many, many instances of U.S. soldiers winning battles in the face of overwhelming odds. Now why do you think that was? One bullet, one kill.

I agree with your post , but I just want to nitpick. Japan fought the war with probably the worst overall weapons of any WW II combatant. They didn't even have a decent submachine gun or service pistol, and much of their materiel was shoddily made especially towards the end of the war.

What they did have was unbelievable fighting spirit which author William Manchester, who was a Marine in the Pacific during the war, grudgingly admitted in his book about the Marines and his combat experiences in the Pacific war "Goodbye Darkness". He still hated the Japanese thirty years after the war for the way they fought, but he added, that in the end, fanaticism cannot be distinguished from heroism.

However in the end our superior strategy, technology, and firepower, (and unlimited quantities of the latter) plus exceptionally well-trained Marines, GIs, and sailors overcame the Japanese.