Quote:
Quote by: sdbest 
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In my view, Obama is as big a fool and idiot as Bush to think that the US and its allies can prevail in Afghanistan. Throughout history, Afghanistan has resisted all attempts by invaders to subdue it. It is insane hubris to think that the US can prevail where all others failed, particularly when the U.S. loses most of its wars except those it wages on small islands like Grenada.
So, is Obama an idiot?
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Obama is no fool. Despite his need to appeal to his political base during the primaries he knows that a total retreat to our current engagements will be political suicide resulting in one term. Special interests aside most middle class folks I know hate the Iraq war, as do I, but hate the idea of a new “Vietnam syndrome” worse.
About the historical claim that the US has lost most of its “wars” (I’ll exclude “small island wars” per the statement):
American Revolution: Won
Barbary Wars: Won
War of 1812: Draw
Mexican American War: Won
Civil War (Union=US): Won
Indian Wars: Won
Spanish American War: Won
Philippine American War: Won
WWI: Won
WWII: Won
Korean War: Draw
Vietnam: Loss
Gulf War: Won
Enduring Freedom Afghanistan: Won
Iraqi Freedom: Won
Iraqi Occupation: Undecided
Afghan Occupation: Undecided
Note that I am appalled by the Indian Wars and the Philippine war and do not endorse them but that is not the point of the rebuttal. North America would be much more interesting if there was a large, contiguous, Indian nation (and an independent Quebec too BTW) but that is off topic.
I would say that the U.S. Track record of winning its wars has been pretty darn good. We only started to lose wars when the will for victory in something we were
already engaged in was no longer PC.
If you count the 100+ occasions that might be called “Island” wars such as Nicaragua in the 20’s, Costa Rica in the 30’s, Grenada, Panama, etc, etc (of which I would call the 1983 Lebanon peace keeping mission and the Somalia debacle a loss) then the U.S. has won well over 95% of its “wars”