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Comment by pessimizer | Hacker News Reader

> The US Military can crush any other military force in the world into dust.

There are no examples of this ever happening, but multiple examples of the US retreating in shame, creating opportunities for very dramatic photography as we leave our allies to die.

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Outside of the retreat in Korea after the entry of China I can't think of an example where the US lost a tactical encounter after WW2. We lost wars but not due to military reasons. We were not defeated on the battlefield in Vietnam or Afghanistan.

> We were not defeated on the battlefield in Vietnam or Afghanistan.

When at first you don't succeed, redefine success?

No, I think the GP comment is fair. The US is bad at counterinsurgency and occupation, because it's not comfortable with naked imperialism. I read 'on the battlefield' as specifically referring to force-on-force military conflict, which is something different.

Exactly this.

And for the people talking about Vietnam.. a lot has changed in 50 years. America got stronger while most other nations, except China, got much weaker. China is the single plausible refutation to my claim above.

The British army defeated the colonial army at every major encounter except for yorktown and lost the war. Hannibal was undefeated except for Zamma and lost the war. Battlefield success and war success are correlated but not determinative.

Iraq 1. Iraq 2. Korea (before china entered). All hot warfare in Vietnam (Tet). D-day. Battle of the bulge.

No army is perfect, can you list the retreats? We left Afghanistan after a decade? We didn’t outlast the NVA? We lost the Philippines for a few years. That’s it?

You ever read about World War II?

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