Three Wars, No Victory – Why?

[rangerrebew]

   Three Wars, No Victory – Why?
By Bing West

February 18, 2021 11:41 AM
 
Policy, strategy, and popular opinion have all played a part in U.S. failures

America is the most powerful country in the history of the world, yet it has not won any of the three major wars it has fought over the past half century. This has not been due to a lack of effort and persistence. Our troops fought in Vietnam for nine years and in Iraq for a dozen. We’re still fighting after 20 years in Afghanistan, where our generals are asking the Taliban to stop attacking. That’s not a sign of success; the victor does not make such requests. The fact is that in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, America has failed in its mission to develop and sustain democracies.

What accounts for this trifecta of failure? Through luck and poor shooting by our enemies, in all three wars I was able to witness both the actual fighting on the ground and the creation of the high-level policies that shaped the wars. In this article, I lay out what I believe were the root causes of the failures. Oscar Wilde once remarked, “Two kinds of people are fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.” I’m rendering one man’s opinion, while hoping to fall into neither category.

Broadly speaking, leadership in war comes from three hubs. The first consists of the military commanders who design strategy and decide how our troops will fight. The second hub is the policy-makers, including the president as commander in chief and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs as his military adviser, plus the theater commander, the CIA, the State Department, and the secretary of defense, who all give input. The third hub is the culture and popular mood of our country, as reflected by congressional votes and the slant of the mainstream press. The press does not report “just the facts”; rather, it presents a point of view by selecting which facts to focus upon. The popular mood is the ultimate fulcrum of political power, because the policy hub can’t fight a war without resources from Congress.

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2021/03/08/three-wars-no-victory-why/

[Smokin Joe]

The author missed the "Forgotten War" in Korea, which while the UN has tried to take credit for forces opposing the Communists was a thin coalition of other Nations' troops along with predominantly United States Military.

That war is not over, merely a detente on both sides of a "Demilitarized Zone" under a cease fire agreement.

Despite the sacrifices made by American and other troops (up to the ultimate sacrifice), the conflict remains unresolved. LeMay was Right, and MacArthur had a handle on the situation, despite his overreach and dismissal.

Had we fought China then, Korea might be different, and China as well (and Biden, Clinton, and others would have never had the backing they did).

[Fishrrman]

I can't address Vietnam, but the reason we could not win (and cannot "win" now) in Afghanistan and in Iraq is that we never tried to fight the real "enemy" in either of those places.

No need to identify who (or what) that "enemy" is.
If you (the reader of this post) haven't figured that out on your own by now, you NEVER will...