This is the second (and likely last) regarding my view of the military.  I wrote an earlier blog (that did not get a lot of views) giving my view of the military from a "personal perspective" based upon the four-years i served in the Navy.

This second view is one that i have been giving some thought to for the past couple of days and it my view of the history of U.S. military use--beginning with World War II.  I will grade each major military use and grade it according to my own standards (which are solely my own).

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World War II--Grade A+++++

This is the worst war the world has ever had, but at the end of it the United States came out as the single world power after the war--a position that it has held onto since the war ended (which btw is consistent with globanomic theory--that the best should stay the best unless they screw things up themselves.  But this war does not get its A and five pluses just because of that.  The U.S. helped the world recover after the war, and thus countries like Germany and Japan are vibrant countries today.  

The grade is hardly biased by my own bias, which included seeing a lot of heroic war films of world war ii in my youth.  FDR and Truman did what they had to do, and they lead the nation in that direction.

No questions asked World War II was an A+++++ activity based upon the U.S. military and its Executive Branch at the time.

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Korean War--A- (A minus)

I think most people would be shocked at my giving the Korean War anything close to an A, even an A minus.  For most of my life, i would have agreed.  There was discord between Truman and Macarthur, it ended up in a stalemate, a lot of lives were lost, etc.   And all of that is true, but history has shown that South Korea has become one of the small, but important contributer's to the world's economy.  North Korea brings nothing to the world table.  South Korea does and it is the United States that helped make that happen.

I hate to change grades because of the "aftermath effects" of the war, but history is something we cannot ignore.  Keep in mind, however, when you consider history in your evaluation--that means the "newer wars' don't get as much advantage/disadvantage of with time.

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The Vietnam War--F-  (F minus)

When i first thought about giving grades out based purely on my own single evaluation, i kind of told myself that i would not give the military anything below a D- (D minus) grade, but then i started to think back.

First of all, we should never have gone to Vietnam.  The French had failed already--why in the f------- hell did we think we would do better.  Vietnam War decisions Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon--across four presidential administrations.  Westmoreland and McNamara--nothing more needs to be said.  Linda always hated me talking bad about the Vietnam war because we had so many friends that were made to fight there--she didn't think it would make them very happy to think they "risked and lost" their lives for nothing.  But that is what it was--Nothing.  And the U.S. paid the price.

Another bad thing about Vietnam is that it tore the country apart--and can somewhat be used to explain much of the tension between the two parties today in the United States.  Although somewhat started by a Democratic Administration--it was the f----- republican populace that supported that war.  The democrats wanted to stop it (Kennedy, McCarthy).  Many strong feelings were builit up during this time period, and many of those same old feelings still exist today.  And despite the F-, both sides would continue to argue their same position today.  Crazy!  Just the same--F minus.

First Gulf War--A++  (A plus plus)

George H.W. Bush's finest hour was the "first Gulf War".  Short and sweet.  Complete coordination between the Executive Branch and the military.  We rightly pulled a "coalition" of true-believers to bring credibility to our effort.  The objective was met with the utmost effectiveness and efficiency.  This war offers a glance at how "military operations" should be managed.

The First Gulf War would have gotten more pluses if it had been a larger, major war.  In scope of wars, this one ended up looking more like an "exercise"--a very well run and organized "exercise".

Afghanistan/Iraq War--D+  (D plus)

I ended up putting these two wars together because its hard to talk about one without the other.  God, did we mismanage these wars.  I don't blame that as much on the military as i do George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Conaleeza Rice.  

I am not bullshitting here.  I was shocked in awe that we went into Iraq when we did.  Honest to god, i thought that was as stupid as what Putin has done with Ukraine.  We looked stupid in Iraq, while taking our eye off of why we went to Afghanistan.  No one can convince me that Iraq was anything other than a strategic "oil grab" by Dick Cheney and his oil buddies--the same ones that were given "joy rides" on a submarine that sank a Japanese boat, killing several Japanese youngsters.

Weapons of mass destruction?  Chemical weapons, not a nuclear arsenal (although the Bush people were always hoping to push that narrative regardless of what the real "intelligence" was showing.

These two wars were so mismanaged that it is lucky the grade i gave wasn't worse.  Over time the grade may get better with history--but i don't really see where our actions in these two endeavors actually benefited the world all that much--maybe a grade or such, but that is why it is given a D rather than an F.

Ukraine/Russian War--A+++  (A plus plus plus)

I am expecting this war to lead us to "world peace", meaning that in the end, i think this grade will be raised to the highest level (like World War II) with five pluses.  The final outcome of the war, however, has yet to be determined.

Just the same, the Executive Branch and the Military, have managed this war as well as any group of experts could.

The question rises as to why i even mention this war in this blog because it is not even a war where we have military soldiers fighting.  Just the same, i will leave it up to the historians to put the final evaluation on this war, but i am pretty happy in terms of where things stand today.

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Now, i know that not everyone will agree entirely with my grading and evaluation of recent war history involving the United States.  Just the same, look at the above again and here are a few takeaways that i think are important.

1.  Boy the U.S. has been in a lot of wars since World War II--all happening during a somewhat long period of relative world peace.

2.  The U.S. has a mixed bag of results with regard to the wars that it has been involved in.  But i bet if you look back over the above war efforts that you will find reasons why we were successful in some cases and quite unsuccessful in other cases.  What it comes down to is Leadership and knowing what the United States stands for and what it does not stand for.

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Just my opinion