> The USA has never been defeated. It's never been taken over by force and forced to submit to a foreign power. War getting a little too expensive or politicall

> The USA has never been defeated. It's never been taken over by force and forced to submit to a foreign power. War getting a little too expensive or politically unpopular for their tastes is not really a loss, and it implies nothing about their true capabilities. Wars are not contests of hypothetical maximum destructive capacity. They are attempts to obtain political goals at an acceptable cost. It was a strategic and political defeat, even though it was not an unconditional military surrender.