Iran has famously impenetrable geography on its side.

wolvoleo 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's not only Iran though. The US and allies (including my own country) accomplished nothing in Afghanistan, 2 weeks after they left quite chaotically the country was back to the state of 20 years ago before the war. So many people died for nothing. So many billions wasted.

And trump can't control Israel despite them being totally dependent on US weapons. He doesn't manage to reel Putin in. The world is in a super chaotic state, pax Americana is really over.

I don't think the classification superpower really applies anymore to the US. And that's mainly because being a superpower isn't only about military power. You can't just bend the world to your will by shooting people. There's a lot of geopolitical goodwill and diplomacy involved too, and the US has thoroughly set that on fire by turning on its strongest allies. The diplomacy is what makes a superpower. The military is just the backup.

I don't think there are any true superpowers anymore, though I do think China is on the rise to become one. Which I'm not happy with but of course that's the thing about superpowers, there's nothing we can do about it.

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inigyou 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Military overrides diplomacy - if you have it. That's the story of Russia and the USA as world superpowers. Russia fell apart as a superpower the moment its military was actually tested and turned out to be useless. The USA is going the same way. The USA doesn't only have its military to rely on the way Russia did - it also has the world reserve currency and de facto control of the internet. So it may fall more slowly as long as nobody else's military challenges it on home turf.

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daymanstep 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The Taliban was actually very rapidly pushed out of Afghanistan by the US working together with the Northern Alliance. The real problem was that the US couldn't reach into Pakistan to fully end the Taliban for good. Thus the Taliban was allowed to rebuild and reconstitute its forces over the years waiting for the US to finally pull out of Afghanistan.

	▲	wolvoleo 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		But if they had really been a superpower they would have had the diplomatic ties and military strength to do that. I mean Pakistan was harboring Bin Laden himself no less. However I don't agree, the Taliban was never really eradicated within Afghanistan either. That's why they came back so quickly. In fact even in provinces far from the border they came back every night. Our forces would build a water well for the local citizens, and the same night the Taliban would come and blow it up and rape half the village. They didn't withdraw into Pakistan every night.

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petre 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The US couldn't handle Vietnam either. Iran is a citadel by comparison.