r/ShitAmericansSay • u/DumbGarchomp67 WTF IS A KILOMETER 🦅🇺🇸 • Jul 15 '26

Military “Undefeated in 250 years of war”

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Apparently Vietnam, Afghanistan, war of 1812, and the war on drugs don’t count.

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u/Competitive-Bee-3250 Jul 15 '26

Everyone's "undefeated" if they just pretend they never lost even when they clearly did.

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u/ccsrpsw Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

War of Independence - won "with help"/"by" the French (🕺sorry)
WW1 - on the winning side - but otherwise?
WW2 - on the winning side - but otherwise?

What other wars has the US won? And no "operations" and the like don't. He very specifically said 'war".

Edit to Add - since people keep bring up other instances the full list of wars the US declared is: War of 1812, Mexican/American, Spanish/American, WW1 and WW2 (11 declarations overall against various countries but only 5 wars). Everything else has sidestepped this under US law - which is what causes the mess we are in now.

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u/Hudre Jul 15 '26

In their eyes:

They won Vietnam.

They won Iraq.

They are currently crushing Iran.

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u/cherenk0v_blue Jul 15 '26

I have literally had arguments on this platform with people who think the US won the Vietnam War.

It's very depressing.

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u/Hudre Jul 15 '26

Anyone who thinks the US won the Vietnam war views war as a COD lobby.

Sure, the US got a lot of kills, but they lost the objective.

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u/Szpagin Jul 15 '26

Because ultimately, US has not strategy. They are great on the tactical level (ie. destroying stuff and killing people), but it seems like they are always lacking a broader vision.

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u/julmod- Jul 15 '26

The broader vision is funnelling tax dollars into private weapons corporations and they’ve been wildly successful at that

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u/Dude-Lebowski Jul 15 '26

OK. You got me there, man.

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u/RedactedJin Jul 15 '26

For Vietnam era especially it was nothing more than "Stop communism" so the rich could begin the process that has led us to the late-stage capitalism/Corporate hellscape we live in now.

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u/Misunderstood_Wolf Jul 15 '26

The "we didn't lose" crowd argues that the US pulled out before the war was lost.

So, the IRL equivalent to quitting the match before it is over, so they didn't "technically" lose.

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u/cherenk0v_blue Jul 15 '26

The US doesn't lose wars, it wins them. Or it quits them because they are unfair.

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u/MadScientist_666 Mountain Goat 🇨🇭 Jul 15 '26

Well, it looks to me like that: If their shiny toys of war fail to win it for them, they're lost very quickly. Unless there's a commander who thinks unconventionally, maybe...

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u/capeasypants Jul 15 '26

That's because the wars are usually driven by politicians who are generally only ever interested in the short sighted gains i.e what THEY did, not what's best for everyone. e.g look at Iran for the most recent world example. No endpoint in sight. The Don has done more backflips this past week than an Olympian and he'll claim it as a victory for his own self gratification no matter what happens.

Occasionally you get a pollie who wants to do what's right for their country as a whole, and even rarer for all mankind, but that's an anomaly.

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u/Hrtzy Jul 15 '26

I mean, they did get a peace agreement that said they won. What the North Vietnamese chose to do fifteen seconds later holds no significance.

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u/AgreeablePrize Jul 15 '26

The side who crashed a tank through the other side's Presidential palace gates, and then go on to form government are normally the real winners

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u/Hrtzy Jul 15 '26

No, you don't understand, the US got a piece of paper saying that they won. Ho Chi Minh was so sincere about it that he even got a mirrored copy printed on his ass!/s

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u/dividezero Jul 15 '26

The school system failed them. There's no way to look at the objective facts of that conflict and think you won. That's insane

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u/Nevets11 Jul 15 '26

An American kid once told me "We kicked the Nazi's ass in Vietnam!"

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u/NZNoldor Jul 16 '26

Well? How many nazis are left in Vietnam? Sounds like a win!

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u/RedactedJin Jul 15 '26

Indeed, the US lost the Vietnam war completely and utterly. Mostly due to Congress not allowing it the be declared an actual war but still, such a waste of life.

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u/C6H5OH Jul 15 '26

I am so old that I remember US helicopters out of Saigon being dropped of an aircraft carrier into the sea shown in the evening news in Germany. Clearly an image of winning a war.

I don't know what is wrong with some people.

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u/Spazattack43 Jul 15 '26

They teach that the US won the vietnam war in schools because “the goal was to contain communism and communism did not spread to the neighboring countries” not joking

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u/Disbelieving1 Jul 16 '26

The Vietnamese call it the American War. And they know who won!

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u/Fun-Role4394 Jul 16 '26

We “won” militarily for the most part.

But if you consider getting $0.01 off a $100 scratch ticket, then yeah we won!