What was the last war that the US won?

1. 49

   bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years ago

   What was the last war that the US won?
   
   

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2. 44

   Ericdierkerposted 8 years ago

   I always love questions along these lines. I am very close to Vietnam. It is still a "communist" country. But if you visit for long you see the most entrepreneurial spirit in the world. The streets make you blush at the extreme capitalism that dictates that world. And the government does nothing to stop it. In fact they promote it.
   So we withdrew and "lost the war". But forty years later we see exactly what we were fighting for. Just our mere presence won the heart and soul of the people. The next Gen is fiercely capitalistic and the country is thriving and improving all the time.
   So I always wonder if we should not take a longer picture of what winning and losing is all about. Iraq and  Afghanistan are too close to call at this point.  I wonder if the cold war was won.

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   tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

   Definitively, WW2. Every war since then has been technically a military action.
   In the case of South Korea, we protected the South but the North wasn't saved from Communism, so I don't consider that a victory.
   We squandered Iraq and Afghanistan by pulling out without stabilizing them.
   Gulf War 1 in the early 1990s to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait could count as a victory, if it counted as a war.

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      bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Tamara
      WWII, E Europe under the NAZIs, at the end of the WAR, under the USSR.
      WWII deferred the war, as USSR and China are sensing the weakness of the US. This creates the Cold War, Berlin Wall, and the Korean War. Then Vietnam, and total failure.

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   peter565posted 8 years ago

   It really depends on what u mean won, war is usually to achieve a political purpose, through the military form. So, do u want to talk about military success or political success.
   
   For example, the China Franch war of 19th century, Both China and the Franch consider they won, why? Because in term of the military, China actually won, the Franch lost every military engagement against China and its invasion force were collapsing, despite French government continue to send reinforcement. But by the 2nd year of the war, the then dictator Cixi who ruled China holding the Emperor as a puppet, fear the Generals that command the war, who are loyal to the Emperor (because all of Cixi's Generals are useless) would undermine her power, so, sign a treaty to give the Franch all they want, which is to give France, Vietnam, so despite getting their ass kick, France successfully achieve their political aim (Even the General in command of the France army in this war, died)
   
   The Korean war is frequently considered as a victory for the US, because although they failed the aim of retaking North Korea from the Communist, the US succeed in its original aim of securing South Korea, WW1 and WW2 is consider a total victory, because, despite mass casualty and not winning all military engagement, they achieve the political aim of getting Germany and Japan to surrender. Cold War is considered a war that US won because Russia's Communist dictatorship gov did collapse, which is what the US want, despite the US and Russian troops never officially engage in battle and the US play no part in the collapse of the Russia Communist dictatorship, knowing it is just a matter of time till it collapse and the US only need to quartine the USSR, till it collapses itself. The modern Afghan and Iraq war is consider both as a victory and failure, because it have been 15 years and we are still not yet able to secure Afghanistan and Iraq from Taliban and now, ISIS is spreading to Syria and things are now more complex with Russia bombing the Kurdish militia, which US is training to fight ISIS. Politically it is a complete mess, but militarily, we have a lot of success, US and UN forces, never lost a single military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to our better train and better equip troops and due to our better armor, casualty rate is kept under 10%, which is very low.

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      bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Winning military battles is not winning the war. Solving the reasons that are involved in going to war is winning. And under those criteria we lost all the wars since 1898. We have deferred war until the next war, and that is not winning.

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