I once was a bad ass. But every country has young men wanting to be bad asses and willing to die for their country.
What made us the bad asses as a country, wasn't young men willing to die. In the words of Patton:
“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_s_patton_102496
It was out manufacturing, industry and technology.
We beat our enemies into the ground with “stuff.”
It's our ability to invent an A-bomb, build B29 bombers (the most capable and probably advanced bomber of WWII), go from blue print to full scale production of a P51 (one of the best fighters of the war) in 6 months, supply our troops across an ocean better than an enemy just 200 km from their industrial heart (Ruhr), break their Enigma, but come up with our own that's better and doesn't get broken...
It's our ability to invent, to come up with technical solutions to problems, and mass produce like no one else that just makes us pummel our enemy into submission: https://youtu.be/F7LgWZzel-Y?si=xLxb_e9rSy4B7YGC
Lose the tech and manufacturing advantage, and we're just highly motivated kids willing to die for our country.
>build B29 bombers (the most capable and probably advanced bomber of WWII)
DEVELOP and build B29 bombers. And there is no doubt it was the most advanced.
The development effort for the B29 was greater than that for the Manhattan project (!!!). VDH covers that at length in his excellent The Second World Wars, which I highly recommend to all.
At some level, every commercial airliner flying today owes a debt of gratitude to that project.