A brief history of the only successful nation building exercises in US History

ThomasFremont said:

So location, tradition, and money?

YellowSnow said:

AZDuck said:

2001400ex said:

Sledog said:

If you nation build in the middle east those backward fucks will just tear it back down to the rock and mud level. But you can bomb them up to the stone age!

I know you are being sarcastic. But the middle East is dry as fuck. There's not much mud there.

Disagree

"Mesopotamia"

So how do they dry out the mud bricks if it's not hot as camel balls and dry as fuck smart guy?

Mosster47 said:

AZDuck said:

YellowSnow said:

RaceBannon said:

The Euphrates and the Tigris are the cradle of civilization

So you're saying we should feel even less sorry for the Mesopotanians given that they got a head start of thousands of years on all the other tribes? Shit they should have flying cars by now in like a Jetsons type of Babylon.

Absofuckinglutely. My FOB in Iraq was in the Diyala river valley (a tributary of the Tigris) and the towns that were nearby (Khalis, Baqubah, Muqtadiyah) are some of the oldest towns on the planet.

Every time it rained the place smelled like actual shit. Not just the FOB, but everywhere around, for miles. It occurred to me that these fuckwits have been shitting on the river bank for over 6000 years, with no indoor plumbing or sewage treatment in sight (either then, now, or anytime in the future). The dark color of the mud caused me to realize that the entire place was built on and of shit.

Don't even get me started on Iraqi barbecue, where the main delicacy is the bottom-feeding giant carp that swim in the local rivers.

TL, DR: fuck those guys

My wife, whose looks are much more useful than her brain has the same opinion on the Swayes. They were here for thousands of years and they never got past the hunter/gatherer, living near an open water source stage.

Had they been a little more advanced we probably wouldn't have had to break Rule #1 of HH. You can't build a civilization the world will envy if a part of the citizens shit on the floor.

YellowSnow said:

2001400ex said:

dflea said:

salemcoog said:

YellowSnow said:

Sledog said:

We only successfully nation build when we have killed them until they don't want to be killed anymore. Bombed the place flat and then dictated the unconditional terms. Has our country become so soft we can't wage a proper war anymore?

Simple: We haven't fought an existential threat type of war against a elite opponent in 7 plus decades. Everything since has been war for more abstract reasons with limited aims, and (necessary) political considerations. Doesn't have anything to do with being soft. The war plan for the USSR wouldn't have been soft and limited.

Disagree.

We can't even train sailors how to avoid a floating skyscraper. While the USSR engages in real training like in how to efficiently kill people. Our forces play grabass during gender sensitivity training.

The USSR?

CCCP.

Those guys suck; they couldn't even make it to the gold medal round against Finland.

YellowSnow said:

salemcoog said:

YellowSnow said:

salemcoog said:

YellowSnow said:

Sledog said:

We only successfully nation build when we have killed them until they don't want to be killed anymore. Bombed the place flat and then dictated the unconditional terms. Has our country become so soft we can't wage a proper war anymore?

Simple: We haven't fought an existential threat type of war against a elite opponent in 7 plus decades. Everything since has been war for more abstract reasons with limited aims, and (necessary) political considerations. Doesn't have anything to do with being soft. The war plan for the USSR wouldn't have been soft and limited.

Disagree.

We can't even train sailors how to avoid a floating skyscraper. While the USSR Russian Empire engages in real training like in how to efficiently kill people. Our forces play grabass during gender sensitivity training.

Fixed.

Our Navy ships have been crashing into shit for hundreds of years; this is no big deal. While it's true Russia has some kick ass artillery and SAM systems and what not, we still by far have the most lethal fighting force in the world.

Well.... As Afghanistan and Vietnam have proven, once you take away our technologies ability to beat someone, we aren't anything fucking special. And I call BS on all these Navy boats going out of the way to hit something, just being another day in the life. At best, it's fucktarded sailors that can't steer the boat. At worst it's outside forces controlling our assets to destroy themselves.

Sound familiar?

Yes, absolutely Vietnam and Afghanistan demonstrated the limit of our technology to win those kinds of wars. But if we'd been willing to lay waste to Vietnam with our superior fire power in the way we did to Japan (say minus the nukes) + getting a lot more of our grunts killed, they would have likely capitulated as well. However, this was never politically feasible, nor moral- i.e., they hadn't waged aggressive war against us.

Here's a list of the collisions over the years. Is there some sort of theory going around about our navigation systems having been compromised by a hostile power?
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a27021/ship-collisions-us-navy-history/