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Why Has America Stopped Winning Wars?
The Atlantic ^ | June 2015 | Dominic Tierney

Posted on 06/02/2015 10:11:55 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd

~snip~

Why does the United States struggle in war? How can it resolve a failing conflict? Can America return to victory?

Today, these are critical questions because we live in an age of unwinnable conflicts, where decisive triumph has proved to be a pipe dream.

~snip~

The price of military triumph was often immense. In the Civil War alone, there were around 750,000 American fatalities—more than the deaths in every other U.S. war combined. But if the costs of conflict were staggering, so were the benefits. The Civil War saved the Union and emancipated the slaves. World War II ensured the survival of liberal democracy in Western Europe. For Americans, golden-age conflicts became the model of what war ought to look like.

And then, all of a sudden, the United States stopped winning major wars. The golden age faded into the past, and a new dark age of U.S. warfare emerged. Since 1945, Americans have experienced little except military frustration, stalemate, and loss.

The martial dusk began with the Korean War, which deteriorated into a grim stalemate at a cost of nearly 37,000 American lives. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the United States faced outright military defeat for the first time in its history—and, most shockingly, against North Vietnam, a “raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country,” as Lyndon Johnson put it.

After World War II, the U.S. constructed the most expensive military machine that ever existed—and endured seven decades of martial frustration.

~snip~

Since 1945, in terms of victory in a major war, the United States is one for five. The Gulf War in 1991 is the only success story. The dark age is a time of protracted fighting, featuring the three longest wars in American history (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam).

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: wars
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To: Responsibility2nd

“Why Has America Stopped Winning Wars?”

When was the las time America declared war?

Police actions are not “wars.”


21 posted on 06/02/2015 10:34:20 AM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: ealgeone

The politicians fettered the military, in Vietnam.
Korea was a United Nations war, and of course,
showed the impotence of the United Nations,
before the Soviets and Red Chinese, which gave the
means to write the war plans for what became
Vietnam.


22 posted on 06/02/2015 10:35:35 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: sten
you cannot win a war against an ideologically driven loose knit group of people, as there is no one to sign the treaty. all you can do is get an ever updating count of the enemy... and start decrementing it to zero

Wars end when the wives, mothers, and daughters of the enemy beg them to please make it stop.

The Three Conjectures

23 posted on 06/02/2015 10:36:37 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Because it’s just so “un-faaaayer.”


24 posted on 06/02/2015 10:38:28 AM PDT by Let's Roll (Before it can get any better it has to stop getting worse - vote 4 most conservative available)
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To: Wolfie
“We” don’t really go to war anymore. Somebody else does, and “We” barely notice.

Image result for marines are at war america is at the mall

25 posted on 06/02/2015 10:38:57 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Intriguing point - in all of US history, the Civil War and WW2 are outliers. Among all our other wars, they are by far the bloodiest, they are the only ones where the opponent states were stomped into nonexistence... and they are also the only ones that liberals, to this day, consider “good” wars.


26 posted on 06/02/2015 10:40:08 AM PDT by Demiurge2 (Define your terms!)
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To: DownInFlames

Thank You for Your Service. Glad You made it back Home.


27 posted on 06/02/2015 10:41:28 AM PDT by mabarker1 (congress, The Opposite of Progress.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Eh, we really won in Viet Nam, we just then gave up and went home.


28 posted on 06/02/2015 10:44:09 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Responsibility2nd

Democrats.


29 posted on 06/02/2015 10:44:17 AM PDT by Lady Heron
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To: Responsibility2nd

We do not define victory. You can’t win if you don’t know what that looks like.


30 posted on 06/02/2015 10:46:57 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Liberals claim to want to hear other views, but then are shocked to discover there are other views)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Why has America elected the same idiot twice...?


31 posted on 06/02/2015 10:52:25 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Theoria

That’s funny - he didn’t follow his own advice!


32 posted on 06/02/2015 10:55:56 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Responsibility2nd

See “National Security Act of 1947/1986”.


33 posted on 06/02/2015 11:05:46 AM PDT by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: Responsibility2nd
If we were truly engaging in a War on Drugs, we would see tens of thousands dead or in jail every year. Until America resembled some Islamic hell-hole or even North Korea.

Sounds like a hoot!

34 posted on 06/02/2015 11:09:22 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom (A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

I disagree that we haven’t been winning. For example, we won in VietNam. When we pulled out in 1973 we had a friendly gov’t in VN. All we had to do was continue providing assistance (military, economic, etc...). But less than 2 years later Democrats in congress pulled all of that support out from under the VN government. This was a violation of our agreement but Democrats didn’t care. Naturally the Communists took over in short order.

The same basic scenario has played out in Iraq and likely will in Ashcanistan. Democrats can ALWAYS be counted on to assist the enemy under the guise of ‘peace’.


35 posted on 06/02/2015 11:09:38 AM PDT by navyguy (The National Reset Button is pushed with the trigger finger.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Because we do not try to win wars any more. We try to make the enemy into democrats in societies for which democracy is simply not relevant. It takes long term colonization- centuries- and control of the schools and their curricula for several generations to bring democracy to such a society. It cannot be brought to a moslem society unless the colonizer is willing to hang people for signs of their religion, such as men wearing brimless hats.


36 posted on 06/02/2015 11:10:09 AM PDT by arthurus (It's true!)
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To: Responsibility2nd
and endured seven decades of martial frustration

I kid you not. My eyes read: "seven decades of MARITAL frustration."YIKES.
37 posted on 06/02/2015 11:22:25 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

One Word Answer: Democrats


38 posted on 06/02/2015 11:22:31 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: left that other site
endured seven decades of martial frustration

they make a little blue pill for that...


39 posted on 06/02/2015 11:23:49 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

LOL....


40 posted on 06/02/2015 11:25:27 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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