Why has America stopped winning wars?

[Armoured]

Correct.

Yep. Australians single handedly won at Beersheba with the last great cavalry charge in history, which directly led to the capitulation of Turkey, which directly led to the capitulation of Germany.

 

[dude99]

No, Vietnam was not a setback of the Cold War, Vietnam was a US victory in the Cold War. It did what it was intended to do in the big geopolitical strategy of the US, which was to stop Soviet incursion into the Third World. As a direct result of Vietnam, for instance, the Soviets stopped their military support of North Korea.



I guess we will continue to disagree about that, but there is no victory until you can stand a 19-year-old with a rifle on the ground without opposition. That never happened in Iraq. There was never a day that the US was not shooting at or being shot at by Iraqis. There was never a time that 19-year-old with his rifle could leave the green zone without backup.

Vietnam from the 1950s to the 1970s was divided by North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The US sent tens of thousands of troops in order to prevent the fall of South Vietnam into communist hands, however the US eventually gave up the will to defend South Vietnam.

The war failed to contain communism, and communism did spread to Cambodia, Laos as well as several African countries.

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

The war failed to contain communism, and communism did spread to Cambodia, Laos as well as several African countries.

Nicaragua too.

 

[RDKirk]

Vietnam from the 1950s to the 1970s was divided by North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The US sent tens of thousands of troops in order to prevent the fall of South Vietnam into communist hands, however the US eventually gave up the will to defend South Vietnam.

The war failed to contain communism, and communism did spread to Cambodia, Laos as well as several African countries.

As I said earlier, the big geopolitical reason for US intervention in Vietnam was to halt the growing Soviet influence in the Third World. It was not particularly about Vietnam itself, it was about the Soviets...and it did work. Where the locals had already become Communist, they stayed Communist, but substantial Soviet assistance came to an end.

 

[dude99]

As I said earlier, the big geopolitical reason for US intervention in Vietnam was to halt the growing Soviet influence in the Third World. It was not particularly about Vietnam itself, it was about the Soviets...and it did work. Where the locals had already become Communist, they stayed Communist, but substantial Soviet assistance came to an end.

In regards to South Vietnam President Kennedy:
In 1963, President Kennedy, with his characteristic eloquence and clarity, said: "we want to see a stable government there, carrying on a struggle to maintain its national independence.http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2303

Here is a few quotes on President Nixon on Vietnam in 1969:

"We believe strongly in that. We are not going to withdraw from that effort. In my opinion, for us to withdraw from that effort would mean a collapse not only of South Viet-Nam, but Southeast Asia. So we are going to stay there."

President Eisenhower and President Johnson expressed the same conclusion during their terms of office.

For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude.

--A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends.

--Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2303

 

[wing2000]

Nicaragua too.

...the seeds of revolution in Latin America were planted decades prior to Viet Nam conflict.

 

[cow451]

Vietnam from the 1950s to the 1970s was divided by North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The US sent tens of thousands of troops in order to prevent the fall of South Vietnam into communist hands, however the US eventually gave up the will to defend South Vietnam.

The South Vietnamese people had two mortal enemies: the Communists and their own corrupt government run by American puppets. The US had refused to support the unification elections agreed upon in the Geneva accords because they believed the communists would win.

The US bears culpability for the growth genocidal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (sound familiar?). Ironically, the communist Vietnamese government put an end to the Khmer Rouge, not the righteous U.S.

 

[cow451]

--A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends.

The US was not a friend to the Vietnamese.

--Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2303

Not.

 

[cow451]

"We".

Australia won the First World War. Sure America eventually helped a bit toward the end, but we'd effectively broken the back of the Central Powers by then, at that point it was really all over bar the shouting.

Bbbbbbut that's not what my history book said. The US single handedly won WWI and WWII. Look it up.

 

[Armoured]

Bbbbbbut that's not what my history book said. The US single handedly won WWI and WWII. Look it up.

Dude, watch the clip I posted. It's all there in film.

 

[cow451]

Dude, watch the clip I posted. It's all there in film.

Say it isn't so.

 

[Armoured]

Say it isn't so.

Sorry, it's scientific fact. Australians conducted the last and coolest effective great cavalry charge of all time, and singlehandedly won WWI by doing so.

 

[cow451]

Sorry, it's scientific fact. Australians conducted the last and coolest effective great cavalry charge of all time, and singlehandedly won WWI by doing so.

BTW, Is your dog ever going to find anything in the sand?

 

[Armoured]

BTW, Is your dog ever going to find anything in the sand?

Yeah, you just have to keep watching, occasionally he finds something, but then he goes back to digging like before. Maybe you missed it?

 

[mindlight]

Actually, no, that was the Cubans acting on their own--the Soviets had stopped supporting them as well by then.

The Soviet subsidy for Cuba continued to the end of the Cold War and financed the African wars and Marxist revolutions by proxy in Ethiopia, Angola, mozambique for example

No, under Saddam things were controlled--he was the only one doing the killing. Moreover, it was amply predicted by both the DoD and the State Department in the early 90s that "Iraq after Saddam" would devolve to precisely what it is. That's one of the reasons the elder Bush did not pursue further war with Iraq after pushing them out of Kuwait.

A 19 year old had more chance of dying under Sadams death squads or in one of his wars that his contemporary does in todays random sectarian violence.

 

[mindlight]

"We".

Australia won the First World War. Sure America eventually helped a bit toward the end, but we'd effectively broken the back of the Central Powers by then, at that point it was really all over bar the shouting.

Allenby was British - just saying!

 

[Armoured]

Allenby was British - just saying!

Chauvel was Australian. So was Grant.

 

[mindlight]

Chauvel was Australian. So was Grant.

I'll raise you Laurence of Arabia

 

[Armoured]

I'll raise you Laurence of Arabia

Meh. Bedouin rabble rouser of no real strategic import. Were it not for the movie, no one would know who he was. Beersheba was the domino that had to fall first to ensure the Ottoman's defeat.

 

[mindlight]

Meh. Bedouin rabble rouser of no real strategic import. Were it not for the movie, no one would know who he was. Beersheba was the domino that had to fall first to ensure the Ottoman's defeat.

Since the defeats at the first and second battles of Gaza it was Allenby that restructured the British- australian army and others and moulded it into a force for victory. It was he who allowed the Cavalry charge and it fitted his style of command as did the support of irregular arab forces. He changed a static style of warfare into a fluid one And broke the Turks, took Jerusalem and showed the rest of the generals that victory was possible.

So Britain won the war with Australian support.