Has the U.S ever won a war?

reply to post by caf1550


Physical aid, mind you. Financially, Ben Franklin was practically groveling at the feet of the French monarchs every other month for more money from the beginning... Okay, that's a stretch on the how often it occurred, but seriously...

Originally posted by babybunnies
USA might have supplied all the war efforts, but did their actual fighting make a difference?

Supplying war efforts is a far cry from "winning the war"

There is an old quote that says "Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics"

Having more supplies than your enemy is what wins a war.

Regardless, the U.S. shed plenty of its own young mens blood to secure victory in both Europe and the Pacific.

What about the spanish american war. And the us won in the pacific being the main force in the theatre. I think only the Australians were involved to some extent.

You cant blame the us for not being crazy and not sacrifying several million of their own in the european theatre to help out stalin. Imagine the us trying to sell the marshall plan to the public post war after Hitler butchered 4 million GIs.

No war has ever really been 'won'...yet, winning would imply the complete extinction of the oposing force. Which has never happened, yet.

How many times in this thread are people going to point out 'No war has ever actually been won"

Yes people getting killed is a terrible thing but there are clearly winners and losers to war.

reply to post by caf1550


No, there are no winners in war. Everybody looses, just some more than others.

Originally posted by Maxatoria
well its lost the war on obesity

and probably every other war on public health invented its probably going to be a virtual whitewash on the us government v's others so in real terms i wouldnt bother pretending and as queen liz for permission to return back to the commonwealth

Try not to be angry just because your Mr. McFattypants

reply to post by polarwarrior


After the Third Punic War, the City of Carthage was completely destoryed by the Romans after they defeated Hannibal

The Penisular Wars betweem France and England, France was clearly defeated and Napoleon went into exile there was a clear winner and looser.

WW2 clear winner and looser, Civil War, Revolution. They all had clear winners and losers.

I dont care how much you hate war there is always a winner and a loser.

Whether we win a war or not is just a matter of someone's opinion based on their observation of those facts. Before I go through a list I want to point out that at no time have I ever heard or read anywhere that the US Has claimed sole responsibility for winning any action. Without the US supporting it's Allies many of the Wars of other countries would of ended in them speaking a language not of their own.

If you mean war as a declared war against a country and not a police action then I would argue that we have never lost a war. If you consider war as a conflict between military groups such as a police action than Vietnam is the US's biggest lose.

Mexican War - American War
Spanish -American War
WW1 and WW2 Europe
*consider that almost every EU country has occupied by either Germany or Italy.
*consider that the US had no less then 99 active divisions
*financed the reconstruction of Europe
WW2 Pacific Japan
*it was like fighting a War on two fronts

Gulf War 100 Hours
* Lets not forget that this started and ended in an effort to free a country that was just invaded. And the US had to deploy it's military to INTERVENE from the other side of the world. A non-Nato Ally.
*at a time when Iraq was considered to be one of the largest military's in the world.

Police Actions
Invasion of Panama = Just Cause
Invasion of Grenada = Operation Urgent Fury
* restoration of constitutional government
Vietnam = US Lost
KOREA 1951-53 (-?) Troops, naval, bombing , nuclear threats U.S./So. Korea fights China/No. Korea to stalemate; A-bomb threat in 1950, and against China in 1953. Still have bases.

If it wasn't for the lend lease program Russia would not of had the resources to get to Germany.
A police action, like Just Cause, is just a safe term for war.
US Military and the French Legion have been responsible for preventing many nations from going to war by presence alone. Eygpt-Isreal
Cold War = Russia Economical Collaspe

MY FAVORITE term is Interventions. Here is a link to just some of them.

The one people tend to forget is 1989 Lybia when the US Navy dropped in to say Hi. I still remember the cartoon that was in the Newspaper that was Gadhafi saying he was going to Bomb the US. The next day ...


Interventions of US
Oh Snap this is going to take forever on my Ipad. Moving to PC to do some cut and paste.

The following is a partial list of U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 2011. Turkish newspaper urges that the United States be listed in Guinness Book of World Records as the Country with the Most Foreign Interventions.

CHINA 1894-95 Naval, troops Marines land in Sino-Japanese War
CHINA 1898-1900 Troops Boxer Rebellion fought by foreign armies.
PHILIPPINES 1898-1910 (-?) Naval, troops Seized from Spain, killed 600,000 Filipinos
CUBA 1898-1902 (-?) Naval, troops Seized from Spain, still hold Navy base.
PUERTO RICO 1898 (-?) Naval, troops Seized from Spain, occupation continues.
GUAM 1898 (-?) Naval, troops Seized from Spain, still use as base.
CHINA 1922-27 Naval, troops Deployment during nationalist revolt.
CHINA 1927-34 Troops Marines stationed throughout the country.
IRAN 1946 Nuclear threat Soviet troops told to leave north.
URUGUAY 1947 Nuclear threat Bombers deployed as show of strength.
GREECE 1947-49 Command operation U.S. directs extreme-right in civil war.
GERMANY 1948 Nuclear Threat Atomic-capable bombers guard Berlin Airlift.
CHINA 1948-49 Troops/Marines evacuate Americans before Communist victory.
IRAN 1953 Command Operation CIA overthrows democracy, installs Shah.
EGYPT 1956 Nuclear threat, troops Soviets told to keep out of Suez crisis; Marines evacuate foreigners.
IRAQ 1963 Command operation CIA organizes coup that killed president, brings Ba'ath Party to power, and Saddam Hussein back from exile to be head of the secret service.
LIBYA 1986 Bombing, naval Air strikes to topple nationalist gov't.
LIBYA 1989 Naval jets Two Libyan jets shot down.

I could go on and list or link all sorts of data from the Web. I've got books on the shelf to quote and reference. The point I would like to make is the US doesn't do this alone and just like Libya 2011 we are generally asked to help.

What makes me sad is that we should be intervening in Syria right now but because so many people are upset over the last few interventions no one wants to put their neck on the line. I mean everyone cried when Obama sent 100 Troops to Uganda in 2011. Half a year later a Viral Video pops up and it seems justified.

It's not a perfect country but it's mine and I will defend it's right to defend you and anyone else that needs help.

The only war that the USA has won is the American Revolutionary war, but even that had some bullcrap behind the scenes.

The USA didn't win WW1 or WW2, they only assisted. They came into both wars only half way through and claimed victory.

Revolutionary war - Victory (according to the history books)

WW1 - assisted (barely)

WW2 - assisted

Korea - stalemate/loss

Vietnam - loss

1st Gulf War - loss, considering Saddam regained power

2nd Gulf War/Iraq War - loss - a craphole now, USA pulled out

Afghanistan - loss

We won the war against the peaceful natives.

The Gulf War wasn't about destroying Iraq. It was about liberating Kuwait.

Or am I wrong on that?

Also show me where America has claimed it won WW1or2 on it's own?

Originally posted by Toolatetotalk
The Gulf War wasn't about destroying Iraq. It was about liberating Kuwait.

Or am I wrong on that?

Also show me where America has claimed it won WW1or2 on it's own?

The war was also meant to oust Saddam, which what happened...for a short period of time. So it was a loss

As for the second comment of yours. One just needs to look at the general mentality of Americans on WW2 to see that they think that they won both wars and saved the world.

Originally posted by SrWingCommander
Won, WWI (well swooped in for the win at the end)
Won WWII (If you want to say the Russians won Europe fine, they wouldn't have without us, and we straight up one the Pacific, mostly with the Navy and Marines.)

Whatever

The USA barely helped in WW1.

As for WW2, don't get me started. Yeah, the US helped, but to say the only major helpers were Russia and the USA you are full of it. What about Britain, Australia, New Zealand? All helped.

As for the Pacific, as far as i am concerned, you can get screwed. Australia played a major part in the Pacific. It wasn't only America.

reply to post by daaskapital


AU had 40k troops die during WW2 vs 120K Philippines. America 400k... Does the numbers justify a victory? No and at the end of the day Japan thought the agreement with the Soviet Union would keep their lands safe. But we all know how that ended. When all was done it wasn't just the Americans in charge. And at no point have I heard or read where we as a nation have declared ourselves the only reason for winning the War.

Originally posted by Cassius666
What about the spanish american war. And the us won in the pacific being the main force in the theatre. I think only the Australians were involved to some extent.

You cant blame the us for not being crazy and not sacrifying several million of their own in the european theatre to help out stalin. Imagine the us trying to sell the marshall plan to the public post war after Hitler butchered 4 million GIs.

You knowledge of WWII in The Pacific is somewhat vague if you believe that apart from The US only Australia was involved to some extent. Here a just a few example to why you are wrong:-

Battle Of Okinawa:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Burma Campaign:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Battle Of Singapore:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Battle Of Borneo:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Etc etc etc

You can add to this The British Pacific Fleet that the US needed the assistance of during The Pacific War:-

en.wikipedia.org...


Please take some time and study some REAL history on the Pacific War of WWII

Originally posted by daaskapital
The war was also meant to oust Saddam, which what happened...for a short period of time. So it was a loss

That's false. The first Gulf War was a UN authorized coalition force meant to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. That was it.

Wars where the U.S was part of a coalition such as the Korean War, Vietnam, The Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq were primarily U.S operations, but token forces from other countries (usually not particularly powerful countries) were pressured or cajoled into supporting the wars so as to give the wars some kind of international legitimacy so as to try and off set the fact that it's the United States who usually instigates or causes most of the wars, or that their reasons for going to war are at best highly dubious.

Also I feel the war in Kosovo was more along the lines of trying to make NATO seem relevent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, rather than it being disbanded like it should have been.