Current Events > How many wars has the USA lost now?

(+) Yeah! (+)

From the top of my head:

1812
Vietnam
Afghanistan
War on Drugs

Anymore?

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According to all of my k-12 teachers: none

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Civil War

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GATTJT posted...

Civil War

Only part of America lost that one. But the Confederates did win the peace in the end.

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I'm not certain how you could view the War of 1812 as an American defeat
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I'm not certain how you could view the War of 1812 as an American defeat

IIRC the Americans wanted to conquer Canada. They failed. And the British even invaded back and burnt DC.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I'm not certain how you could view the War of 1812 as an American defeat

Because America got its ass kicked until Britian realized they didn't have the man power to occupy America so they just gave up. Then after they gave up Andrew Jackson successfully defended New Orleans and America declared victory.

Pretty much the same thing with the revolutionary war. Britian knew it was just a waste of time and resources to try to occupy America. They didn't want to sink 20 years and infinite amount of money into a war they could never win like some country I know of.

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BlackOmnimon posted...

UnholyMudcrab posted...

I'm not certain how you could view the War of 1812 as an American defeat

IIRC the Americans wanted to conquer Canada. They failed. And the British even invaded back and burnt DC.

The war didn't start because the U.S. wanted to annex Canada, it started because the Royal Navy was capturing American ships and impressing their crews.
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Is it really "losing" if it's churning money into the military inudstrial complex? Don't think America cares about the lives and wellbeing of soliders as long as the rich get richer.

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Iraq

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How many wars have we had since WW2

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What's the verdict on Korea?

Derwood posted...

What's the verdict on Korea?

Hmm good question

Tie?

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All victories and the rest are draws

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War in Iraq

I wouldn't say America lost Afghanistan. They weren't having problems occupying it. In theory, the Afghan army should have been able to fend off the Taliban.

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They've lost pretty much every war except for the two world wars

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Afghanistan wasnt even a loss. We were there for Bin Laden, and stayed to help Afghanistan. We pulled out of our own accord. If we really wanted to stay indefinitely, we probably could have.

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Zero.

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Christmas

BlackOmnimon posted...

Hmm good question

Tie?

I'd say it was a US/allies victory. Pushed NK back to their original spot and stopped them from achieving their objective of taking over all of Korea.

For clear US losses I would only really put Afghanistan and Vietnam. For Afghanistan the initial invasion/war was a victory but the overall result was a loss. Afghanistan was a bit more complicated than simply chalking it up to "losing a war", but I would agree it ended in failure for the US.

1812 is pretty much the clearest example of a draw in history and it's hilarious when Canadians try to frame it as a US loss or Americans as a US victory.

Neither side got anything out of it.

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Considering the British were busy with Napoleon back then, the fact that they succesfully held off the USA with only a small fraction of their power, is a big win for them

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DarthAragorn posted...

How many wars have we had since WW2

Technically? Zero.

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Samurontai posted...

Afghanistan wasnt even a loss. We were there for Bin Laden, and stayed to help Afghanistan. We pulled out of our own accord. If we really wanted to stay indefinitely, we probably could have.

And failed to get Bin Laden there, and now failed to help Afghanistan. So it's a loss...

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need to do a deep reassessment of war aims in all cases

America has not been involved in a war for over 76 years.

BlackOmnimon posted...

And failed to get Bin Laden there, and now failed to help Afghanistan. So it's a loss...

Last time I checked, he's dead.

What, it doesn't count because he wasn't in Afghanistan at the time? What, is this pro wrestling where you don't get the championship if you don't beat your opponent in the ring?

"Drag his corpse back to Afghanistan. We gotta make this official."

Lost the proxy war in Syria

BlackOmnimon posted...

And failed to get Bin Laden there, and now failed to help Afghanistan. So it's a loss...

We got Bin Laden, and we helped Afghanistan. Them not wanting to defend their country isnt on us

In the 20 years that we were there, we lost a little over 2400 men.

The Taliban lost over 51 thousand.

We left because our mission was done their. We trained their soldiers, provided them with equipment, and left. Our mission was never occupy Afghanistan indefinitely

So nope. Dont think thats a loss

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FortuneCookie posted...

Last time I checked, he's dead.

What, it doesn't count because he wasn't in Afghanistan at the time? What, is this pro wrestling where you don't get the championship if you don't beat your opponent in the ring?

"Drag his corpse back to Afghanistan. We gotta make this official."

Also it would count because Pakistan is kinda sketch when it comes to diplomacy. Most of the worry about Afghanistan, was Pakistans indifference and/or willingness to help terrorist groups


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Its too many to count now, so many lives lost for no reason, as well as trillions that could have gone to save lives instead

2Pacavelli posted...

Lost the proxy war in Syria

Oh yea this

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I'm not certain how you could view the War of 1812 as an American defeat

well if you simplify the war you can.

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BlackOmnimon posted...

From the top of my head:

1812
Vietnam
Afghanistan
War on Drugs

Anymore?

Korean war. Chinese support in the end essentially destroyed all the progress America made and pushed the boundary back to nearly exactly where it was before the war started.

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Blighboy posted...

1812 is pretty much the clearest example of a draw in history and it's hilarious when Canadians try to frame it as a US loss or Americans as a US victory.

Neither side got anything out of it.

• White house burns down
• British force us to sign something that says we agree to leave them the fuck alone
• Andrew Jackson attacks some shitty position before news the war had already ended reached them and drove them off

"It was totally a draw guys"

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Korean war. Chinese support in the end essentially destroyed all the progress America made and pushed the boundary back to nearly exactly where it was before the war started.

The objective, IIRC, wasn't to take over all of Korea. It was to defend SK, which NK overran in the beginning. NK failed their objective in taking over SK, so the loss goes to them. The only thing China did was bail out NK from complete destruction.

On the other hand the US/allies successfully defended and preserved SK.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

The burning of Washington was irrelevant to the course of the war.

"This doesn't matter because I say it doesn't."

How the fuck could one side conquering the other's capital in a war be irrelevant?

Blighboy posted...

Neither side got anything out of it.

Don't have to get something out of it. The British kept US from completing their objective. That alone would probably be enough if they didn't also take the capital.

It's more than the Vietnamese did.

The war of 1812 really was just the Napoleonic Wars fought somewhere else and with some more people added.

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Collat posted...

"This doesn't matter because I say it doesn't."

How the fuck could one side conquering the other's capital in a war be irrelevant?

Because it really didn't matter. It didn't cause the Americans to sue for peace, the British weren't able to stick around and occupy the capital, and the fires were put out by a hurricane that came ashore the next day. The American government was back in town before a month was out, and the war continued for several more months afterwards.

The battles of Baltimore and Lake Champlain that were fought in the two to three weeks after the burning of Washington reversed any kind of strategic gain the British might have gotten from the act.
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Napoleon won the 1812 invasion of Russia because he burned down Moscow.

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Uncle Sam has become something of an expert at taking things apart. But he often seems to be an amateur at sticking them back together again.

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we didn't really "lose", we called it a draw. we could level Kabul in a few hours and kill all the Taliban there if we didn't care about that whole war crimes thing.

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Dakimakura posted...

ause America got its ass kicked until Britian realized they didn't have the man power to occupy America so they just gave up. Then after they gave up Andrew Jackson successfully defended New Orleans and America declared victory.

British generals were shocked that the Americans didn't blockade the St Lawrence River. It was the main supply route for all of Canada at that time and they could have just starved out the British. That's how defenseless Canada was.

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Dakimakura posted...

Because America got its ass kicked until Britian realized they didn't have the man power to occupy America so they just gave up. Then after they gave up Andrew Jackson successfully defended New Orleans and America declared victory.

Pretty much the same thing with the revolutionary war. Britian knew it was just a waste of time and resources to try to occupy America. They didn't want to sink 20 years and infinite amount of money into a war they could never win like some country I know of.

That's not too different from the US retreating from Afghanistan and Vietnam but both are used to justify a loss on the American side.

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Cuba, on multiple occasions.
And then there's Yugoslavia, but nobody won anyway.

thronedfire2 posted...

if we didn't care about that whole war crimes thing.

Yeah. About that.

Why do Americans try to make it so they never Lost

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They lost world war 2 according to ceman logic because they eventually stopped occupying Japan