How many wars have we not won? Korean War, Vietnam War, War on Poverty,

[jody]

War on Drugs, War on Terror. Are there others?

[marmar]

1. As Orwell said ...

the "war" is meant to be continuous, not won.

[BlueJac]

2. War are not meant to be won but ............

they are a rallying point for years to come. War is a way for the government to steal our money and blow it in the Defense Department. War is a propaganda that makes everyone scared or insecure. The government hated the end of the cold war......it was a safe war that sucked the money from the American public. The new war on terra is just another way to suck us dry, even though we were attacked on 9-11 it was something that the administration embraced as another excuse to fight more battles. War on...is the neo-con battle cry!

[Straight Shooter]

3. We're clearly not winning the War on Stupidity, either.

One look at the frat boy in the Oval Office and it's obvious we've damn near lost that war.

[Double T]

4. You can win the battle, but never the war

We're not winning too many battles these days.

[flyingfysh]

5. you forget a great victory

Against a very dangerous, threatening foe:



























Grenada

[bunkerbuster1]

6. The American Civil War

the Union unwisely took its boot off the neck of the Rebellion back in 1877. Yeah, we "won" the war but definitely lost the peace.

As a result, rednecks terrorized the best and brightest African Americans living there, and, well, our country's pretty fucked up as a result.

Those troops needed to stay in the South for a couple of generations at least.

[Hardrada]

12. They also should have gone into Texas

and occupied it for fifty years. They never did and the Texans got away with their cocky attitude and racism.

[bunkerbuster1]

16. You might be right.

Then again, you might be making fun of me, for all I know of Texas' history...

[Hardrada]

23. That's what Union General Phil Sheridan said

after the Civil War when he found the Texans to be quite unrepentant.

[Yupster]

27. Phil Sheridan

Famous for saying that he burned down the Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket of the Confederacy so thoroughly that "a crow would have to pack a lunch if he were to fly over it."

Now that was a guy who knew how to fight a war.

[shenmue]

7. As the man said...

"You don't declare war on drugs, you declare war on Americans with drugs."--Sam Kinison

[Donailin]

8. everytime we declare war on something

we get more of it.

You'd think we learn that WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER.

end of rant.

[rosesaylavee]

9. War on drugs. n/t

[HawkerHurricane]

10. War of 1812

Lost the war, broke even on the peace, declared it a victory.

[tabasco]

11. I don't consider the Korean War a defeat.

Saved South Korea from dictatorship.

It may have been unwise to take the war right to the Chinese border, but we did defeat the attack on South Korea.

[Hardrada]

13. It just wasn't a victory after the PLA came in.

A negotiated stalemate ever since.

[jody]

15. But the Korean War is not over. All we have is an armistice with

continued negotiations. :shrug:

[tabasco]

19. And South Korea is a thriving democracy. n/t

[jody]

20. Absolutely and I've enjoyed every day I've spent there. Hyundai has

an automotive plant in Montgomery Alabama and I believe Alabama employee benefit packages are lower than in Korea.

I guess that means Alabama is a second world state compared to South Korea.

[tabasco]

22. They must be selling a jillion of those cars.

They look nice. But I found out that 10-year warranty costs extra. Still, nice cars for a good price.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. The Philippine-American War of 1898-1913?

The U.S. acquired the Philippines from Spain and tried to colonize it. They sent approximately 130,000 troops to occupy the islands. Over the years, a protracted guerrilla war was fought in which about 5,000 U.S. troops died and an estimated 20,000 Philippino "insurrectionists" were killed. The most horrific aspect of the war was the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Philippino civilians, up to 1,000,000 by some accounts, or about 15% of the population. Many civilians suspected of being sympathetic to the guerrillas were rounded up in concentration-type camps where they died of disease and starvation. Some newspaper accounts from the period portrayed the Philippinos as near-animals, not worthy of decent human treatment. The war ended in 1913 when Woodrow Wilson decided to grant greater autonomy to the people of the Philippines.

In this sense, although the U.S. always controlled the terrain, they lost this war. This war has been greatly overlooked by the average American, but has been called "America's first Vietnam".

[SlavesandBulldozers]

24. excellent post

this war doesn't even have the luxury of being a forgotten war, it's an unknown war.

went in to ostensibly rid the Phillipinos of oppression. Stayed as occupiers. A violent, neverending, uprising ensued against the "liberators".

Sound familiar?

[Hissyspit]

32. Learned the concentration camp example from the Boer War British who

invented it.

[FloridaPat]

17. How quickly everyone forgets - Granada! Remember the great victory

against Castro! Our great leader Reagan planned and plotted against the even Castro and kicked him and his comrades out of Granada. Parades in the street. First military victory since WWII.

Then there is the invasion of Panama to get Noreiga.

[jody]

18. But we won those didn't we where winning is defined as being able

to impose your will on your opponent?

We did that in Grenada and in Panama because the objectives were very limited.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

25. That was the one where Clint Eastwood and Mario Van Peebles

whooped some ass. It was a great movie er i mean war.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. I declare war on "Compassionate Conservatives"

A war I think we can win, since the term is an oxymoron.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. The War on Poverty actually made a lot of progress

Too bad it was sidetracked by a combination of the Vietnam War and power elites who began to oppose the programs when they inspired poor people to question the status quo.

[Selatius]

28. There's been no progress since the 1960s

Just look at what happened to inner-city communities in the following decades. Don't you remember the tragic pictures of Flint, Michigan, Michael Moore showed in F9/11?

[Hardrada]

29. Pretty much was all over when RFK was killed.

I guess we knew that but didn't want to acknowledge it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. Mexico 1915

Villa made lots of fun of Pershing, but did train them for WW I I guess...

They NEVER caught Villa

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. Right, but the lack of progress was not due to the programs themselves

but to

1) The financial strain of the Vietnam War

2) Opposition from local elites after VISTA and Legal Aid workers did things like informing poor people of their legal rights

3) The beginnings and acceleration of outsourcing

4) A propaganda effort to associate poverty exclusively with people of color. When the War on Poverty was first announced, both white and black faces represented "the face of poverty." By the end of the decade, especially after the race riots of the late 1960s, poor people were portrayed almost exclusively as black. Given America's racial attitudes, this portrayal reduced support for the War on Poverty among middle class whites.

One by one the programs disappeared or were greatly diminished by budget cuts: VISTA, Legal Aid, NDSL student loans (which forgave teachers' student loans 100% if they worked in a poverty area for five years and 50% if they taught anywhere for five years), Foster Grandparents, and the Job Corps are all either gone or barely existing. (These were not the only components of the War on Poverty, just the ones I can recall offhand.) The only component of the War on Poverty that still exists in any meaningful form is Head Start, and even there, there are more eligible children than there are places for them.

Poverty went down significantly during the 1960s and 1970s, although the real wages of low-income workers peaked in 1979.

[Hardrada]

31. The Brave Assault on the Bonus Army Marchers

in 1931 or so. Great triumph of the Hoover Administration and galland Douglas MacArthur. Killed some vets and burned their tents when they were only seeking some financial redress.