Posted by
Patrick Henry on Wednesday, August 04, 2010 1:18:29 PM
Americans have fought a number of wars, beginning with the 18th century War for
Independence and extending through the current conflict in Afghanistan. The popular
assumption is that America always wins its wars, but a closer examination of history
makes such a judgment questionable and hinges upon one's definition of "wins."
To be sure, America has won some wars outright. The Revolution against great
Britain is an example. The clear objectives of that war were to throw off the yoke
of British tyranny and establish a free and sovereign nation. Mission accomplished.
The War of 1812 was something of a reprise of the Revolution, albeit with a slightly
different configuration of powers. It ended in a stalemate, but America still won
because it had rebuffed an attempt by the British to reassert dominance.
The Spanish-American War started over Spanish intervention in Cuba and the
Philippines (imperialism), and after the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in the Havana harbor
congress declared a war in which the U.S. trounced Spain. However, the ending was
bittersweet, because after evicting the Spaniards from the Philippines America wanted
to annex the islands, causing yet another conflict with the Filipinos whom America
had armed and trained. The Filipinos defended their land and achieved independence,
and America turned an overwhelming win into an embarassing non-win.
Mexico and America fought a war over the independence of Texas, and Mexico
got its backside kicked across the Rio Grande and all the way to Mexico City. Not
only did Texas win independence and the right to become a state, but California and
part of what is now Arizona were conquered and annexed as well. That's right,
illegal alien indigenous rights boosters. Losing has consequences, and Mexico was
the big loser in that war.
Americans fought each other (north vs. south) in a bloody civil war that claimed
a huge toll in lives and national ill-will, some of which persists to this day. The south
wanted its independence (to secede from the union) and the north wanted to liberate
the slaves and preserve the constitutional republic. On all counts, the north won.
World War I was fought to keep Germany from dominating all of Europe, and was
a clear win for the U.S. and its allies. World War II was a struggle against the maniacal
regime of Adolf Hitler in the Atlantic theatre and Tojo's Japanese hordes in the Pacific.
Germany was beaten the old-fashioned way, and the Japanese surrendered after U.S.
President Harry S. Truman ordered atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Italy's Benito Mussolini stupidly cast his lot with Hitler, thereby guaranteeing Italy a
spot on the loser list. The clear objective on both fronts was to defeat imperialist
armies with designs on controlling large populations other than their own.
In Korea, the U.S. fought a bitter two-year war against the North Koreans and the
Communist Chinese, the purpose being to defend the freedom and independence of
South Korea. The war ended up a bloody draw, with an armistice protesting the
boundary of South Korea, but leaving in place a bloodthirsty militaristic regime which
ultimately camed to be ruled by Kim Jong Il.
In Viet Nam, the U.S. plunged into a combat zone where European armies had
floundered, perished and ultimately withdrawn. The hope was to keep South Viet
Nam free and independent. But communist sympathizers in the south (the Viet Cong)
and Chinese protectors from the north joined forces with communist dictator Ho Chi
Minh to drive the U.S. army out, inflict huge numbers of casualties and overwhelm the
weak and corrupt government in the south. This was a U.S. loss.
When Iraq sought to invade Kuwait, seeking to assert an ancient and bogus claim
to the oil rich land there, they found a U.S. force waiting and ready. Operation Desert
Shield, quickly followed by Desert Storm resulted in the humiliating defeat of the
vaunted Iraqi army, a shock to the Russian generals who had trained them and provided
their strategy. When President George W. Bush believed intelligence that dictator
Saddam Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction, Operation Iraqi Freedom
commenced wherein Hussein was overthrown and ultimately hanged by his own people
for crimes against humanity. The good news was that Hussein was gone. The bad was
that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, although some evidence of the
Iraqis' interest in them was. The succeeding Iraqi civil war left American combat troops
trapped in the middle, and the mounting loss of life coupled with the absence of WMDs
led to eneormous presidential unpopularity for Bush and loss of support for the war
at home.
After Islamic extremist terrorists, mostly born in Saudi Arabia, hijacked four airliners,
crashing two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, Bush declared
war on the Afghanistani Taliban who provided shelter, aid and comfort to al Qaeda
mastermind Usama bin Laden. That war continues to rage, with the outcome uncertain.
There are good wars and bad ones, and reasons for success and failure that go well
beyond numbers of soldiers, quality of weaponry and strategic brilliance. War as a genre
has evolved technologically, but devolved politically, strategically and tactically. The final
segment of this post will establish and analyze that devolution, as well as providing a
calculus for determining which wars are profitable and which are not.