I'm rather slow when it comes to realizing certain things. After reading this article titled North Korea May Attack US; South Korean Ships, it finally dawned on me, 56 years late, that the US has not decisively won a war since WWII.
For the past few years, here I was, concerned about the "recent" decline of US power and influence in the world, when the reality is we have been declining since the Korean War. We never won that war. We executed a half-assed truce - a draw - a war that resulted in BS - nothing. The belligerant enemy was left to fight another day. Why should I feel bad about the US "tail tucked between our legs" defeat in Vietnam? Or the pending realization that Iraq will likely revert to fundamentalist Islam in the next couple of years, or the quagmire in Afghanistan, or our impotence concerning Iran and North Korea.
Yes, back to North Korea - a situation that should have been resolved 56 years ago. The "another day" for North Korea to fight is in our faces today.
Is our failure to decisively win any war since WWII due to our declining power and weakness, or is it due to badly chosen conflicts? Badly chosen conflicts have hastened and continue to hasten our declining power. Was Korea a badly chosen conflict? Probably not. A close ally was attacked. We responded "proportionately", that is, with just enough power to lose thousands of men and not win the war. We could have won, but our will was awol. Since then, we have suffered from the dual curse of poorly choosing our fights, and an awol will to win. Hence, a greatly weakened America.
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