What is the biggest military blunder of Americans in Last 500 years?

Question

Since last 60 yeasr, Americans(USA) is enjoying some sort of super power status. despite all that they had very serious mistake in their foreign policy. That prompted me to ask this unusual question. I know some American foreign policy flaws. Many mistackes they did. And for that they paid heavy price too.

Answer 1

Should check your history better, we haven't been a country for 500 years.

Answer 2

The biggest military blunder... hard to say but here are a few.
1) Fighting the "south" in the war between the States - the loss of life was atrocious and victory did nothing that could not have been done through negotiation and diplomacy
2) Being unprepared for Pearl Harbor. We had all the signs, saw it in the "tea leaves" and yet the fleet was at anchor without a clue.
3) Allowing Soviets to take Berlin in WW2
4) Letting politicians control how we fought Viet Nam. War is War fight to win or do not fight {see also Democrats on Iraq}
5) The Carter blunder in Iran
6) Little Big Horn
7) The entire War of 1812 {lucky we won that one!
8) The peace treaty at the end of WW1, was a Military blunder in that it guaranteed WW2
9) Not responding unilaterally and powerfully during the Pueblo Incident with Korea
10) Stopping the first Gulf war without removing Hussein

Answer 3

President Washington sent a military expedition under Arthur St. Claire into the Northwest Territory in 1791. At the Wabash River, Little Turtle of the Miami Tribe crushed the whites.

Answer 4

Well America as a nation has only been around just a little more than 200 years.

But I will answer this question by saying...Letting politicians get in the way of fighting a war is a serious mistake. Once the military is engaged...let them do their jobs. There is no "humane" or "politically correct" way to win a war.

Answer 5

Pulling out of Vietnam when military victory was within reach|

This caused the emasculation of the Amercian military (until president Reagan restored its pride) and a deep wound in the American psyche (which was only healed with the Iraq campaigns against the Brutal Dictator)|

It also caused untold evil in the Indo-China region as millions were horribly murdered in the socialist paradise that ensued, and untold numbers of others were brutalized in the worst way possible, either by the communists in Vietnam, or on the seas trying to flee that country (the boat people)|


This was all due to the expediency of the Democtats, that will allow any evil to flourish or any atrocity to occur against anyone (remember Willie Horton) for their own political gain|

They are trying the same thing again now in Iraq, as the US is now fighting the most brutal evil that it ever has had to face| If the U.S. loses this now, all is lost| But this does not matter to your average Democrat, for he will do anything for political gain, power, money, or prestige|| || ||





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Answer 6

There have been a lot.....

One of them that I know of was in World War 2......
During the Aleutian Islands conflict in Alaska when
Japan invaded those islands....

The Canadian military said they had a division available and
ready to re-take the islands for the United States.
The US Military said no that they would handle this.

Unfortunately, the US Military Commander was apparently
not that familiar with the Alaska area.
The military sent several thousand American troops
to one of the Alaskan islands to retake it.....Unfortunately,
none of the troops had "winter battle gear", in other words
they were freezing from the cold when they arrived...No heavy
coats, no gloves, no mittens, no scarves, etc.

One soldier that was there said, "The problem was trying to
keep warm, and unfortunately you couldn't make a fire
from trees or bushes because there was nothing on there
on the island to burn."

This oversight probably delayed battle plans for the US because
of not having the right equipment for the troops there.

Answer 7

Well as the US didn't exist 500 years ago, your question is odd.

But there are a couple of incidents including the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, that wasn't well planned

Answer 8

Vietnam

Answer 9

The biggest American blunder is in the making right now. The consequences of the contemporary foreign policy are going to be so huge that by soon the US is going to loose its empire, like so many countries did before, and fall into a recession that will last probably several hundred years.

And it is not only me who thinks so. Around 500 BC one of the most important generals in world history, and maybe the only general never to loose a war, the Chinese Sun Tzu, wrote "The Art of War". In this small book, studied in many military academies around the world, Sun Tzu not only defined all conditions necessary for successful warfare but also the NO-NO´S that lead to defeat. His work on war and war faring was so methodological, step by step, and clear that it has been studied in all kind of Universities from Business schools, to Philosophy.

In it Sun Tzu explains that first and utmost war should be avoided at all cost unless there is no other way. He lists the specific situations necessary for an army to wage war and win.

He made special emphasis upon Protracted Wars, the impossibility of winning such wars on enemy soil, and states that, no matter what happens and how week is the enemy, these wars cant be won and usually bring about not only defeat but the certain injury inflicted to any country who engages in Protracted wars.

Furthermore when listing the necessary conditions required to win a war, he describes many requisites that the current US administration, has ignored but done the very opposite of every just about point listed by Sun Tzu. Even though his work is well known amongst the American military and politics and I believe it fostered the reasoning behind Bush Senior’s leaving the Gulf and even Saddam Hussein alive as soon as he could.

Today the US is waging protracted wars in foreign soil in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other lesser "wars" including the war on Terror, in many places like Somalia, and soon probably in Iran. All, the points which according to Sun Tzu assure defeat and will make the most powerful armies loose a war and suffer defeat and horrible consequences are the main core of American Foreign Policy.

While Sun Tzu recommended and practiced his theories, and never waged a single protracted war, and consequently never lost one the US military and government are involved in 3 or 4 protracted wars at the same time which will be the last drop to overflow the glass of the American Empire.

I am Spanish yet I studied and lived in the US for nearly 10 years. Spain was at some point in history the most powerful country on earth, however we waged protracted wars at the same time in Italy, Netherlands, Germany and other places like Central South and North America. While I lived there I felt that the education and indoctrination of the American people, made them seem the most likely candidate to act like Nazi Germany. Unquestionable obedience led the Germans to wage war and everyone kept quiet even though they knew perfectly that what they were doing was wrong. The Spanish did very similar stupidities as US are doing right now. However, we counted with one advantage that Americans do not have and this was huge amounts of gold robbed from America incoming constantly to feed maintain and improve our armies.

Yet all our leaders after Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany, where as retarded and stupid as G.W. Bush. The population in general for patriotic and chauvinist reasons believed they were the best in the world and that no one could teach them nothing and this led to the fall of an empire on which the Sun Never Set and took our nation to the most absolute ruin. The decline was slow and continuous and lasted over 400 years at the end of which we had become one of the poorest European Nations and of has so damaging consequences that only recently we are beginning to recover from.

In my opinion the US is in the same situation. American technological advantage is of no use on protracted wars. The Spanish cannons, boats, rifles were also incredibly superior technological than the bows an arrows of their enemies yet all the gold in the treasury and all the mercenaries could not prevent the demise of the empire.

This has been the reason of the fall of many other empires too, from the British, to the French, Mongols, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Chinese, and Germans etc. etc. So, unless the US changes their actual policy fast, and withdraws from all these battle fronts, it is just a matter of time that the US is defeated on all fronts and learns a very hard lesson which will drive it to the most abject situation in its history.

Soon the US military will be waging wars in so many places that their own land will be in serious danger and probably they will loose part of their own territory as Spain lost, Sicily, Naples, the north of Italy, Gibraltar, the Nederland and finally all its colonies.

So the biggest blunder of all is in the making and unless something changes and really fast the US will loose, and Vietnam will be historically irrelevant in comparison to the defeat they’ll suffer for waging multiple protracted wars in so many countries at the same time. The demise, poverty, hunger, political unrest will last for many a generation and the US will have to eat their pride as Spanish and so many other had to.

Best regards
SF

Answer 10

THE BIGGEST BLUNDER HOW BOUT SEPT. 11 2001. THERE WERE MORE PEOPLE KILLED IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER THEN IN THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR. IT WAS AN ACT OF WAR . AND IRAQ WAS THE BLUNDER GOVERNMENT DECLARED WAR WITH OUT KNOWING WHO THE ENEMY WAS. IT TOOK LESS TIME TO WIN WWII THAN WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW. I'M NOT SAYING STOP THE WAR AND GET OUT BUT IF WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT THEN FIGHT TO WIN... UNTIE OUR BOYS HANDS AND LETS GET IT ON..........