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by energy123 77 days ago
> the US hasn't seen a good outcome to a war since something like WWII

Korean War, Panama, and Gulf War were rather successful, resulting in a (more) US-aligned and prosperous South Korea/Panama/Gulf. Without these wars, South Korea wouldn't exist, Panama would probably still be a dictatorship, Saddam Hussein would control Kuwait and the US would have significantly less influence among the GCC.
1 comments
roenxi 77 days ago
The Gulf war turned out to be a disaster, it set the US up for 30 years of moral humiliation and strategic degradation in the middle east. They're still fighting the same people, to this day! And slowly going bankrupt Soviet-style because of it. They'd be far better off in a counterfactual universe where they didn't get involved fighting people in the middle east; the Chinese strategy of simply investing the money in domestic industry has been far more effective.
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energy123 77 days ago
"set the US up" is doing a lot of non-credible rhetorical heavy lifting. In no way did the first Gulf War predetermine the Iraq War, which is what you're trying to insinuate.
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roenxi 77 days ago
I'm going a bit further than insinuating, I think there is a link between the time Bush Sr & Cheney fought Saddam Hussein and the other time Bush Jr and Cheney fought Saddam Hussein. In the same place for largely the same reasons. The events connected. The main difference is as the internet took hold the Bush family had a much harder time covering up the fact that they were ruining their own country and eventually got forced out of presidential politics as the consequences of leaving them in command of the US military became apparent. Thank goodness for that too.

EDIT I saw that deleted comment; bit of a faux pas to respond I know but.. look, there was an invitation for you to cherry pick the most successful US military interventions after WWII. Korea is a great example. Panama too for all I know. But a Bush attacking Saddam Hussein's Iraq is not the hill to plan a defence on, the US policy there used to be one of the top 2 go-tos for US tactical success leading to strategic failure up until the unfolding Trump-Iran episode.

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