|
| ▲ | mullingitover 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The NATO forces defeated the Taliban in a timeframe that could be measured in hours. The remaining years were an exercise in nation building, there was never “defeat.” The military simply isn’t the right tool to lift a nation out of poverty and eventually the voters got bored. In Vietnam, the US was fighting an army backed by the Soviet Union and China that had anti-aircraft and artillery. No, the US insurgency would turn into a Grozny unless the insurgents get backing from China or some other serious player. |
| |
| ▲ | pjc50 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Think of a rebellion as national "unbuilding" and you get some idea of how things might go. If things get that hot, there will be substantial defectors and various state and federal security services fighting each other. | |
| ▲ | rbanffy 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don’t think it’d be easy to get a Chinese ABM to Minneapolis without anyone noticing. What could happen in this scenario would be either local military defecting or guerrilla warfare while the US military targets them from afar. You can easily bomb anyone back to Stone Age in hours, but taking control of the ground can be a lot more challenging if the locals don’t cooperate. Anyway, a full-on civil war is a very unlikely - and undesirable - scenario. |
|
|
| ▲ | bigDinosaur 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| There are plenty of examples of asymmetric warfare where the stronger party crushed the weaker one. WW2 was full of such examples. People point to Afghanistan and Vietnam as if they apply in every situation, for some bizarre reason (I assume motivated reasoning). |
|
| ▲ | seanmcdirmid 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| The rebels (against the American regime) were all rural, ballistic missiles weren’t very effective when your enemy is wandering around the desert coming in out of rural Pakistan. To get rid of the libs…they live in dense cities, trump would just have to lob a missile at Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, etc…it’s a war he can actually win quickly. Heck, why do you think it’s so easy for him to sh*t stir right now with a few strategic ICE surges. It’s easy when 90% of the left in Minnesota lives in one urban area. |
