Why do Americans lose so many wars? Civil War, Vietnam, Iraq, Bay of Pigs.?

Question

Americans were on both sides in the Civil War, so we can say they both won and lost the war. The Repubs. made sure we lost the Vietnam war, when they realized we could never win it. The Bay of Pigs was not techically a war, but in practice it was a war like Iraq, undeclared. The war in Iraq was lost quickly - can we win it back? Who knows?

Answer 1

The civil war obviously can not be counted, as to the other 2 or 3 i think the question is why do we create unnecessary wars? and the answer is military industrial complex.

Answer 2

The Civil War was lost by the Confederate States of America, a different nation. The United States won that war.

The bay of pigs used no US troops or equipment or support, aside from the planes and boats that dropped off the Cuban rebels.

So, I would change your list to:

Vietnam: Government supported by the US fell 2 years after final withdraw of US forces.

Iraq: Undecided, but strong potential for success if Iraq government can unite various factions and domestic security forces are strengthened.

War of 1812: Won
Civil War: Won
Mexican American War: Won
Spanish American War: Won
WWI: Won
WWII: Won
Korea: Won (need proof? Look at how bad off N Korea is compared to the south)

I would say our military history mirrors closely most other nations, some wins, some losses and some draws.

Answer 3

Another liberal wacko, using bad grammar and misinformation. I would not be surprised if you were on James Carvel's payroll.
Confederates were on the losing side in the civil war. They attempted to break away from the Union. They cannot be considered "Americans" anymore than Canadians or Mexicans can be considered Americans. They are on the North "American" continent.
Liberals, leftist college students, Walter Cronkite and the liberal main stream media sabotaged the Vietnam war effort. I was here in the USA at the time. The North Vietnamese admitted, only a few years ago, that they were ready to give up but were sustained by what went on in this country prior to the pullout of the US.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a CIA sponsored operation by Cuban exiles. It was not a US military operation.
The war in Iraq is not "undeclared." President Bush declared a war on terrorism, and the Iraq and Afghanistan operations are a part of that declared war.
The war was won in weeks, when the US military demolished the Iraqi Army and sent Sadam into his spider hole.
The on-going violence is unfortunate. However, stopping all crimes before they happen is impossible. Just look at the crime rate in the USA. There are more Americans murdered in the US than soldiers murdered in Iraq.
You did forget about one "tie." The Korean War ended where it started. Technically that was a UN operation, not strictly a US led war.

Answer 4

You need to study your history:
Revolutionary war - won
War of 1812 - won
Mexican war - won
Spanish American war - won
World War One - won
World War Two - won
Korea - cease fire. Technically a UN police action.
Bay of Pigs - An embarrassment for the US and the Kennedy administration. Both were redeemed in the Cuban missile crisis.
Vietnam - cease fire. For all intents and purposes a loss but the "domino theory" we were warned about never materialized.
Grenada - won. We saved some college students.
Gulf war 1 - won. The UN mandate was to expel Saddam from Kuwait, which was accomplished. What the US failed to do was support the insurrection that followed.
Bosnia - won
Gulf war 2 - won. We defeated the Iraqi army and toppled their government. I don't know how else you can define victory. What we are losing is the peace.

Answer 5

Pulling out of a war because it's the right thing to do,is not a loss.
If we were willing to win at all cost in Vietnam, then Vietnem would be no more than pot holes and charred jungle.
At some point the government will need to make that choice in Iraq...I have confidence they will make the right decision.

Answer 6

Well, I had a great-great father in the hospital in Richmond, when the city fell. I had another, a CSA Capt. who surrendered with Lee at Appomattox and another who rode with Mosby in the Valley. So we know what it means to actually lose a war.

Vietnam was not fought as a war. We tried to help another nation learn to defend itself, so that we could go home....sounds familiar doesn't. It didn't work.

If we had fought Vietnam like a real war, we would have completely destroyed North Vietnam. And in my opinion, we should have. But there were political realities that are certainly beyond my knowledge that kept us from doing that.

Bay of Pigs was not an American War. We encouraged Cuban exiles to try to overthrow Castro. Our President at the time, decided to remove their promised US air support and they got wiped out. If it had been a war, Cuba would have fallen pretty quickly.

When won the war in Iraq...it's the peace we can't win, but that's because we are trying to help people instead of wiping them out. And that is always a lot harder to do.

Too bad them Yankees weren't fighting a police action back in the 1860's eh???

Answer 7

The United States won the Civil War. The Confederate States lost it (remember, at the time of the war, they were their own country.) So technically we didn't lose that one!

We actually won all of our wars until Vietnam. We should learn something from that...

Answer 8

We haven't really lost any major conflicts. If we had you would likely be speaking another language right now and you would not have the freedom to hide behind a computer and spout ridiculous nonsense in an effort to bash the county that most likely you live in or at least has insured your freedoms by protecting your civil rights. You can choose to buy into the mainstream media's liberal propaganda machine but in the end just remember you have many freedoms that people in other countries don't have and never will unless liberated by the US.

Answer 9

Umm, we beat a much bigger army in the Revolution. We beat the CSA in the Civil War. We won both World Wars, an unneccessary war with Spain and one with Mexico, we lost Vietnam and Korea but I don't think we've lost that many wars. If we had lost many wars, we wouldn't be the strongest country in the world would we?

Answer 10

Arent we still fighting the war in Iraq?Ignorant statement on the civil war,Vietnam ask the majority of the guys who got spit on from people of your ilk,but I guess one feels proud to continually condone a country that defends itself,helps others and continually try to do good for the world.Other countries want to run US down but they will be the first to knock on the door for the freebies and when a crisis hits.