Why does the US continue to lose wars?

When we as a people put more emphasis on the speed of victory and pushing a political agenda, we will forever fail. We no longer do the research that was used in the past. We fail to learn history, we listen to a public that lives off of fast food, is overtly obese, and crave instant gratification. Also, the battle ground has changed significantly in the past decades. From uniformed forces fighting within the rules of war to civilian dressed fighters, engaging and vanishing and children triggering large quantities of explosives, killing men, women and children, and at times military. We now have "Politically Correct" and no more "Suck it up and just do it" and we have questioning of decisions by forces that have no business in making those decisions. Look at us now, buying multi ton vehicles over light quick vehicles due to this current war. What about in the mountains? The jungles? Its lobbyist directed and money in the pocket. PC wins and funding flows. Sorry but the truth hurts.

We the best leaders, troops and equipment so I will start at the very top.

Greed, personal gain...Please "google" General Smedly Butler's comments about the creation of multi millionaires and billionaires as a result of WWI.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ [login to see] /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN= [login to see] &linkCode=as2&tag=forepolires03-20&linkId=M6UX2J3HGZTC2J3P&utm_source=FPRI+E-Mails&utm_campaign=12399e77d2-FPRI+Insights+060615&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e8d0f13be2-12399e77d2-179125285

War is and always should be fought by the military and its leaders, not by politicians who have no "skin in the game." If we have asked our qualified military leaders it to fight a war, then it should be left up to them to come up with a list of attainable goals for said war and then let them accomplish those same goals without any political interference. PERIOD. Anything less is pointless. Car mechanics don't pull teeth so politicians shouldn't mess in military business either.

Until the politicians understand that collateral damage includes civilians and their homes, we will continue to lose wars because we were nice. Remember Sherman, Ike and Patton.

We lose wars because we place constraints on ourselves that no other country abides to. Also, politics / public opinion interferes too much with the way Military Leaders carry out warfare. Unfortunately, public opinion / voice help nudge politicians to act, which adversely effect the way we fight. Once a policy changes, sometimes those same people complain about the policies they pushed into effect. So, ironically, the American populace is actually the ones that have tied our Military's hands - yet, they wonder why we don't act...

Do you think Russian, China, or Iran have such limitations?

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CFYQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F2015%2F06%2F04%2Fobama-administration-nsa-surveillance-internet%2F28472865%2F&ei=aiByVZS5IYeRsAXLiICICw&usg=AFQjCNEzhqyAALPZWQLPTYE_6V-8u4yPSQ&sig2=DOaoMu0Nw68S_41ptWH_Cg&bvm=bv.95039771,d.b2w

It seems that a lot of people here want to blame the "public" and our political class for our lack of success in the last 70 years. That's a pretty easy thing to do, and is technically correct, since the population elects the politicians that decide on our involvement in these various conflicts.

To say that the military isn't wholly supported by the politicians when we are sent afield is simply not true, though (at least for Iraq and Afghanistan, I won't speak for conflicts I didn't participate in). Was anyone here lacking for bullets, chow, or water while at home or overseas? I certainly wasn't. That is the support that the country provides. Moreover, following Vietnam the country has largely supported the military morally in its conflicts.

Where does the fault lie, then? I agree with Dominic Tiery. We are too quick to get engaged in foreign nations that have very little impact, or potential impact on our country. As Mr. Tiery points out, after WWII we built an incredibly large and sophisticated military. It seems that we itch to use it every now and then. However we dress up the reasons for joining conflicts in faraway lands (containment of Communism, revenge for 9/11, Sadaam Hussein is evil and may have WMDs ...) we are not judicious enough in our use of military force.

There needs to be a higher bar to cross before we commit troops. Moving back to a more constitutional approach to war would go a long ways in this regard. While it is entirely possible that LBJ would have gotten the votes to go to war in Vietnam it would have made it tougher. Same for George W. Bush and his wars.

Why do we lose though? It's fairly simple. We cannot win. Did we pull out of Iraq to soon? Sure, but when is the right time? Do we stay there until there is no insurgency? Will that day ever come? How is Afghanistan going to end? Will the military we've trained be able to fight the Taliban? Do we stay there for decades until it is as professional as ours? We cannot build successful states. Only the population of that country can do so. As long as we keep trying we will continue to fail.

P.S. I'd also like to dispel a statement I keep seeing throughout Rallypoint. A lot of people say our legislators can't relate to the military. That isn't true as nearly 19% of our legislators are veterans, compared to roughly 7% of the general population (fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43869.pdf ; http://www.va.gov/vetdata/).

Another interesting way to look at this is to compare the qualities of the militaries of the countries we helped (South Korea in Korean War, South Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) with the those of the enemy forces. In each case, we armed and trained these forces but yet, less armed and trained enemy forces consistently defeated them or caused huge losses. It seems like those we supported have been racked by corruption and poor leadership. I am not sure how this has totally affected our conduct of wars but I see some parallels from Korea to Afghanistan.

If you look at the timeline of human history it doesn't matter who the winners and losers are, the human race keeps moving forward.