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Government
The Korean War Started the Trend of Endless Wars for America. How Do We Change Course?
2020-06-26
[The National Interest] "The United States is not equipped to solve every global problem. No nation is. In the case of the Korean War, our failure to close that chapter of history has allowed mistrust to fester for so long that détente seems impossible, despite the fact that lowering tensions would protect U.S. interests in the region better than the status quo. Ending the seven-decades long conflict could help transform the security environment in Northeast Asia as well as usher more progress in areas of mutual concern, such as public health and climate change."
Posted by:Besoeker

#8  TRUE WAR
1. Plans on how to crush the enemy (not broadcast to the world) with realistic cost estimates. PLans for salting the earth if necessary.
2. Plans on MacArthur style post-war dictatorship to rebuild target nation over the course of a decade.
3. Declaration of War from Congress that should include realistic plans of how to pay for double the estimates from 1 and 2. NAMES MUST BE ATTACHED, no hands vote.

POLICE ACTION
1. Blast and leave. Only Special Forces troops on the ground. This is the Afghanistan plan before we sent troops and demanded democracy.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2020-06-26 13:09  

#7  You notice they change the name of the land force from the War Department to the Department of the Army. Just saying.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-06-26 12:15  

#6  The US military doesn't win wars any more. It just keeps the peace, more or less, and ensures a steady flow of profit to the defense industries.

Why win a war? It would make the spending stop. Better to keep the enemy around and justify endless conflict.

Moreover the existence of an enemy justifies the stationing of US troops on foreign soil. Bringing them home diminishes worldwide influence. It is the job of the US to midwife a global governance, an eventual superstate that will eliminate war forever. This means some dishonest skullduggery in the present; the future benefits are so sky-high as to justify any misleading actions.
Posted by: Maggie Poodle6767   2020-06-26 10:32  

#5  The pain of the Spanish-American War was the Philippines. Had the Spanish kept it, there would be no reason for a Pearl Harbor cause the Japanese militarists viewed it as a threat to their seizure of the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. No Pearl Harbor, no German-Italian declaration of war. We would have sat it out.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-06-26 10:29  

#4  One might argue the Spanish-American War kicked things off. Korea was the start of endless "police actions".
Posted by: Clem   2020-06-26 07:59  

#3  We were in a desperate race to catch up. After WWII demobilization (as all previous wars), the military was about as hollow as could be expected. In 1948, the Berlin airlift began when the Soviets shut down access to Berlin from the Western Alliance. Up till then America's commitment to the post war world was to be a garrison policy. With the Soviet acquisition of the 'bomb' (with help from the usual suspects), its post-war atomic deterrence was gone. 'Deep State' in Washington, circa 1948, elected to become the world's policeman, but was without a police force. Peacetime draft was reintroduced. Getting men and materials were prioritized for Europe.

Korea was a side show to all of that. Washington had already decided it wasn't going to win in Korea if it meant losing Europe. After many setbacks and fumbling, by November of the first year we were on the Yalu. When the Chinese communists intervened. The fear in Washington was this could spread to another 'world war' and Europe was possibly in play. We were still mobilizing a large military build up.

As to who won and who lost, the answer is obvious. The UN mandate was to repel the North Korean invasion and reestablish the antebellum border arrangement.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-06-26 07:48  

#2  /\ Then quietly and without fanfare, depart the Area of Operations and come home.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-06-26 07:43  

#1  Intervene less and utilize the full extent of our capability when deployed. The military should used sparingly, but if push comes to shove they ought be unleashed with a goal of absolute and devastating victory.
Posted by: Cesare   2020-06-26 07:39  

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