SOMEWHERE BENEATH AN ACTIVE VOLCANO

IF THE WESTERN World is – led by the United States of America – the strongest military power on earth, then how come it keeps losing wars?

The detritus left by failed Western military adventures litters the pages of world history since 1945:

China (supported the Nationalists who lost to the Communists); Korea (driven back to the start line by the Chinese, ended in a draw that remains to this day); Vietnam (disaster for France, bigger disaster for the USA, huge disaster for Vietnam); Laos (Backed losers); Cambodia (Backed Losers); Cuba (failed invasion, backed the losers); Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatamala (Vicious Mess); Grenada (Yeah, the island’s about the size of a large football field!); Lebanon (More Disaster); Columbia (More Drugs than ever!); Kuwait (Yeah, liberating a dictatorship from another dictatorship in a row over oil: I love the smell of burning oil wells in the morning); Mogadishu, Somalia (Blackhawk Down and down and down); Afghanistan (Defeated by the same religious zealots the US used to defeat the Soviet Union – backed the wrong side somewhere?); Iraq (Utterly pointless mess, defeat in all but name); Libya (Bring back Col. Gaddafi); Ukraine (Poor Ukraine!); Cold War (With victories like that, who needs defeats?).

“You can only lose so many conflicts before people on the other side begin to notice that you might not be as all-powerful as you make out,” says Major Sherman Grant of the military think tank, The McClellan Foundation. “There are a consistent features to Western military interventions – 1) Initial enthusiasm often whipped up by outright lies; 2) Self-satisfied hubris and stomach churning propaganda; 3) Short attention span, little or no staying power, retreat in disorder. Essentially, you just wait them out.

“Luckily, most of the rest of the world is not much better right now. But …”