3 ms·
> The U.S. "won" Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in the same sense that they "won" WW2 - those countries were bombed back into the stone age and the exist
by michaelt 3y ago
> The U.S. "won" Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in the same sense that they "won" WW2 - those countries were bombed back into the stone age and the existing governments fell.
I feel you're overlooking the critical fact that after the allies won WW2, Nazis didn't control Germany.
Whereas the Taliban remains in control of Afghanistan. To describe that as a US win doesn't really seem accurate.
The US did print a big 'Mission Accomplished' banner though, so I agree the folks who started the war do claim it was a victory.
- herval 3y agoWW2 is an exceptional case in that it’s one of extremely few wars where the winners and losers are universally acknowledged
- l33t7332273 3y agoThe mission accomplished banner was for Iraq, not Afghanistan. USA explicitly achieved its war aims in Iraq 2(and Iraq 1 for that matter).
- michaelt 3y agoYes, I suppose the USA did achieve its goal in Iraq, in the sense that they sought to disarm Iraq of WMDs, and Iraq had no WMDs after the war. Of course, Iraq also had no WMDs before the war, so I'm not sure the episode proves much about America's ability to win.