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Welcome to American history. That's how we've been doing it for the last couple centuries.
by CapitalistCartr 3y ago
Welcome to American history. That's how we've been doing it for the last couple centuries.
- SoftTalker 3y agoNothing uniquely American about it. It’s the history of humanity.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoWhat's uniquely American is how little they have been on the receiving end.
- jjoonathan 3y agoThank you Atlantic and Pacific!
- brightball 3y agoAnd Lockheed Martin
- local_crmdgeon 3y agohey whoa hey don't forget Raytheon and Electric Boat
- christkv 3y agoLast time was the war of 1812. Funnily enough the only war that does not have a more catchy name. Guess if you lose a war you don’t want to remember it really.
- brightball 3y agoIsn’t that where the national anthem came from?
- zmgsabst 3y agoI think the US suffered minor attacks on the mainland and invasion of Alaskan islands in WW2, in addition to the more well-known attacks at Pearl Harbor and Midway. Not sure if enough happened to count, though.
- silisili 3y agoNot sure it was a loss for USA as a country. The real losers of that war were all the indigenous who were involved, and perhaps Spain who'd lose Florida a short time later.
- AlbertCory 3y agoyeah, I actually read a book about that, which there aren't many of. The multiple half-assed "invasions" of Canada were a disaster for the US, as was the loss of Detroit and Michilimackinac Island. On the latter, the Brits had no reason to give it back, but they did. People like to remember the Battle of New Orleans, except the war was already over. Good thing the Brits were preoccupied with Napoleon.
- CapitalistCartr 3y agoAnd the pirates helped carry the day in that battle.
- akomtu 3y agoFor now. The Roman Empire wasn't suffering from invasions during its prime years. Only when it got too old and weak, it was picked apart by its neighbors. On the human scale, the US is maybe 50 years old: still strong, but there are obvious signs of decline.
- sarchertech 3y agoThe Roman Empire suffered from plenty of invasions and direct military defeats during its peak years. The Roman Empire also showed plenty of what people would see as obvious signs of decline during what we now call its rise. The idea that an Empire follows a 3 act trajectory of rise, plateau, and fall is incorrect or at least incomplete. The history of empires is one of multiple waves of expansion and contraction. The peak can only be seen in hindsight. While you’re in it, you might be able to see the slope, but there’s no way to tell whether you’re headed towards local or global maxima or minima. If you’d asked a Roman on the street in 53 BC, after a Roman army had been decisively beaten by the Parthians, he probably would have been worried about obvious signs of decline as well, but that was well over a century before what most people think of as the peak of the empire. That’s not to say America can’t be sliding off of a global maximum, but there’s absolutely no way to tell until it’s over.
- shiroiuma 3y agoYeah, I think it's impossible to say, but I also think you have to think in relative terms. How is a nation (or empire) faring in comparison to its peers or competitors? If it seems to be in decline in some way, but everyone else is also in decline the same way, then they may still be at the top. America is having some big problems lately, but it seems like most of its peers and adversaries are also having big problems too.
- edgyquant 3y agoThe Roman Empire was constantly invaded during its rise and then was constantly splintering and fighting civil wars along with the occasional war against foreign powers in its height. You’re completely wrong about that
- smitty1e 3y agoFor copious reasons, including the Second Amendment.
- polski-g 3y agoAlways remember the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
- daotoad 3y agoAnd the Golden Corollary: He who makes the rules decides who gets the gold.