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[zombie urist]

How about Afghanistan/Iraq?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The US lost politically in Vietnam. The NVA never won a straight fight with US forces.

But the US shouldn't be invading Iran in any case. Invading Iran is how we got into this mess with the theocracy in the first place. Fucking CIA, ruining everything for everyone and not having foresight.

[Flying Dice]

Dunno. How did the US lose in Vietnam?

Heavily forested surroundings along with the fact that it was mostly a air campaign?

That was largely irrelevant. Virtually everything in war comes down to two things: logistics and morale. If you can't get things where you need them, you'll lose. That wasn't the problem for the US. If your citizens stop supporting you, you (in a democratic state) are pretty much going to be forced to withdraw if at all possible. If your citizens stop supporting you in a more repressive state, you run the risk of a popular revolt. Replace every GI in Vietnam with autonomous robots and winning wouldn't have even been a question. Armies raised from relatively free populations simply can't be forced to wear enemies down through pure attrition unless there is literally no option other than fighting.

Also, yes. Fuck the CIA.

[Hurize]

How about Afghanistan/Iraq?

I am pretty sure American Force won.
We accomplished everything we wanted to do.

[RedWarrior0]

You forgot the biggest one going for us: Air superiority. The modern (conventional) war is won in the skies. I don't care that you have a heavily fortified location. I have a couple Tomahawks loaded with Thermobaric weapons. SAM sites? Right, I'll either send a fleet of F-22s or some B-2 Spirits after it, and then we send in the trusty B-52 Stratofortress. Somehow you have more tank than us? AH-64 Apache and A-10 Thunderbolt will take care of that. What's that, home field advantage? C-130 Hercules cargo plane, and Nimitz-class supercarrier. Oh, and I forgot about these newfangled MQ-1 Predators packing Hellfire AGMs.

The US has the most powerful conventional military in the world. Doesn't mean shit when the bad guys are hidden among civilians.

Let's see: Re: Afghanistan and Iraq:
US objectives were to find and destroy Saddam's WMD stash (heh) and in Afghanistan... Um, what were the objectives, again?

[Flying Dice]

How about Afghanistan/Iraq?

I am pretty sure American Force won.
We accomplished everything we wanted to do.

Hahahahahahahah. Oh. Wait. You were serious.

So what happened to those WMD? Or, heh, "democracy". I suppose we did manage to get Bin Laden. More than a decade to find one guy hiding in plain sight. Plenty of contracts fed to US companies for the rebuilding of the nations we destroyed as well. Ooh, and we managed to kill the dictator we created in Iraq, now that we don't need him to oppose the Soviet Bloc by being even more repressive. We also managed to kill a bunch of those mujahideen fellows that the CIA trained back when they were fighting Soviet aggression instead of US aggression. In the meantime encouraging an entire new generation to hate the US and take up radical methods. While losing support virtually everywhere in the world and getting tens of thousands of people killed for essentially nothing. Yep. Great job, Mission Accomplished.

[kaijyuu]

Afghanistan... Um, what were the objectives, again?

Beat the shit out of the country in vengeful anger?

[RedWarrior0]

Afghanistan... Um, what were the objectives, again?

Beat the shit out of the country in vengeful anger?

Ah, Okay.

*checks map*

Nope, Afghanistan's still on there. We have more work to do, guys.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Despite everything else that happened, I'm ok with Afghanistan because it took out the Taliban's regime. We're talking about people who literally plant bombs on roadsides to keep girls from attending schools. There's repressive, and then there's I'm Alright With Dropping White Phosphorous* On You For Existing, and the Taliban are the latter.

^{*Hyperbole, MetalSlimeHunt does not support the use of White Phosphorous in warfare.}

[Hurize]

You forgot the biggest one going for us: Air superiority. The modern (conventional) war is won in the skies. I don't care that you have a heavily fortified location. I have a couple Tomahawks loaded with Thermobaric weapons. SAM sites? Right, I'll either send a fleet of F-22s or some B-2 Spirits after it, and then we send in the trusty B-52 Stratofortress. Somehow you have more tank than us? AH-64 Apache and A-10 Thunderbolt will take care of that. What's that, home field advantage? C-130 Hercules cargo plane, and Nimitz-class supercarrier. Oh, and I forgot about these newfangled MQ-1 Predators packing Hellfire AGMs.

The US has the most powerful conventional military in the world. Doesn't mean shit when the bad guys are hidden among civilians.

Let's see: Re: Afghanistan and Iraq:
US objectives were to find and destroy Saddam's WMD stash (heh) and in Afghanistan... Um, what were the objectives, again?

You forgot one aircraft
MH-6 Little Bird

Despite everything else that happened, I'm ok with Afghanistan because it took out the Taliban's regime. We're talking about people who literally plant bombs on roadsides to keep girls from attending schools. There's repressive, and then there's I'm Alright With Dropping White Phosphorous* On You For Existing, and the Taliban are the latter.

^{*Hyperbole, MetalSlimeHunt does not support the use of White Phosphorous in warfare.}

^{*Hyperbole, Hurize does support the use of White Phosphorous in warfare.}

[MetalSlimeHunt]

But...that's not hyperbole at all. That would just be a statement.

[zombie urist]

The US has the most powerful conventional military in the world.

I'm not even sure if I agree with this. 

[RedWarrior0]

Okay, who has a more powerful conventional military or close enough that you doubt it?

[Flying Dice]

The US has the most powerful conventional military in the world.

I'm not even sure if I agree with this. 

Yeah, it's not really a matter of opinion.

Our defense spending is close to seven times that of China. We spend about the same on defense as defense spenders 2-15 combined. Granted, defense spending isn't a perfect measure of military capability, but it's probably the best we have.

[Aklyon]

So, does anyone else use Iran's currency, or just Iran?