The lesson of suicide terrorists seems to be that dying certainly doesn't win a fight, but it provokes behavioural changes in your foe. Changes lead to mistakes.
In that sense, dying works - if the target is so fragile it will self-destruct. The USA in total isn't fragile - but the aspects of the USA people loved (liberty, freedom from unfair search & seizure, freedom from torture, large but power-limited government) seems to have been very fragile.
you win a war by imposing your will onto your foe and make. him give up. needed bodies of peasants before, then you nuked them. turned out to be too much, back to peasants.
or why do you think has the army (as in infantry) lowered their IQ standards (measuring IQ was developed for the prussian army)? why are poor people massively overrepresented in the armed forces? rich people join too, sure, they call it air force and officer corps. peasants for the meat grinder, best keep them far from home lest they turn on their masters.
Poor people are overrepresented because lots of people see joining the army as a last resort. The armed forces also offer things like money towards university (in the US at least).
and look how well of tunisia is off now. or what jan palach achieved. or thich qang duc. well, you might make it onto the cover of a ratm album or into a world press foto award series, sure.