• DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The “global war on terror” ended with a rather dramatic raid that killed bin laden. And the war part of Gulf war 2 was an obvious victory.

      But winning a peace is a fuckton harder. And we haven’t done that since Vietnam.

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        And the war part of Gulf war 2 was an obvious victory.

        Really? What were the objectives? Kill a bunch of civilians and hand Saddam over to a lynch mob? Because the end state in Iraq was collapse, chaos and a massive increase in Iranian influence.

        • DomeGuy@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          You nailed it in one.

          Wars are fought to knock down opponents. No war has ever had an actual goal of “make that country happy”.

          As I said before, the war part of Gulf War 2 was a resounding success that ended the Bathist tyranny in Iraq. That chaos replaced it was not a failure of war fighting which might have been solved by more bullets and bombs, but rather a failure of the post-war peace.

          If Gulf war 2 was a “loss” because it led to chaos and civil war, then WW1 was the biggest loss in history since its end led directly to.tne Nazis. Which i suppose is a reasonable philosophy., except that it would utterly neuter statements about the USA not winning many wars with “nobody else does either.”

      • Jay101@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The “global war on terror” ended with a rather dramatic raid that killed bin laden.

        No, they executed an accused without a trial or prosecution. In India, they had a multiyear fair trial before the terrorist was executed. Difference between democracy and not a democracy.

        • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          No, they executed an accused without a trial or prosecution.

          Binladen got what he deserved, and there was little chance that it was safe to capture him and transport him back to the US for trial.

          • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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            23 hours ago

            Or rather any trial would be unconstitutional as it would rely heavily on “evidence” gained by torture. To save itself the embarrassment, America did what it always does and kill with impunity.

          • Jay101@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Well of course he got what he deserved. But they’re was no trial though. There was also no Trial for Kissinger, Bush. There won’t be one for Nethanyahu, Biden, Trump, etc too.

    • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Like on their own? If so, then not even Gulf War 1 counts, b/c they were part of the UN coalition. I think maybe the invasion of Panama?