Hello sir. How do you feel about our role as nation builders? It seems like in WW2 we fought civilized societies with standing armies, beat the hell out of their military and infrastructure, then the fighting basically stopped their after surrender. We helped them rebuild and those countries are doing great today. But ever since then we've fought limited wars that tend to drag on the fighting and suffering for a lot longer, and essentially without success. The Korean peninsula is still bitterly divided, Vietnam didn't turn out so well for us, the first Gulf War didn't really resolve much and lead directly to OIF which left a barely-functioning Iraq in a civil war, and it looks like the same or worse will happen in Afghanistan when we pull out despite over a decade of our work. I think we're making more enemies in the long-run than friends with our actions in the middle east.
I'm active duty Air Force and a fan of history, and I'm trying to think of what future historians will say about our military actions after WW2. We are amazing at getting in there and destroying things, but I can't say that we do a very good job cleaning up once the main battles are done. Thoughts?
boj3143152 karma
Hello sir. How do you feel about our role as nation builders? It seems like in WW2 we fought civilized societies with standing armies, beat the hell out of their military and infrastructure, then the fighting basically stopped their after surrender. We helped them rebuild and those countries are doing great today. But ever since then we've fought limited wars that tend to drag on the fighting and suffering for a lot longer, and essentially without success. The Korean peninsula is still bitterly divided, Vietnam didn't turn out so well for us, the first Gulf War didn't really resolve much and lead directly to OIF which left a barely-functioning Iraq in a civil war, and it looks like the same or worse will happen in Afghanistan when we pull out despite over a decade of our work. I think we're making more enemies in the long-run than friends with our actions in the middle east.
I'm active duty Air Force and a fan of history, and I'm trying to think of what future historians will say about our military actions after WW2. We are amazing at getting in there and destroying things, but I can't say that we do a very good job cleaning up once the main battles are done. Thoughts?
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