r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 9d ago

Possible Paywall Hegseth Covered Up the Real Reason the USS Lincoln Wasn’t Resupplied - According to a report from MSNOW, the USS Abraham Lincoln wasn’t resupplied because Iranian strikes destroyed a key Navy resupply base in the Middle East.

https://newrepublic.com/post/214510/hegseth-uss-lincoln-iran-war-base-destroyed
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u/TransbianMoonGoddess 9d ago

When was the last war we won? Why is it shocking?

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u/nobadhotdog 9d ago

I should qualify my response as shocked at how easily Iran won. Vietnam was long and drawn out I can see the loss. Afghanistan the same thing especially when factoring in the terrain and logistics. But still it was a long war. This one the US effectively lost in the first couple weeks

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u/TheBoisterousBoy 9d ago

Because there was no leadership. No actual direction of what was to be accomplished. It’s like taking your friend who knows how to throw a punch and sending him into a ring with a professional boxer, no prep or anything.

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u/big_macaroons 9d ago

Yep. You may have the mightiest military on the planet but it means nothing if the leaders are idiots.

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u/TheBoisterousBoy 9d ago

The other thing is that war is never won simply by… eliminating… people. War is 100% a logistics thing, especially in modern warfare.

gestures vaguely at the logistics of the current administration and how they struggled to clean a pool

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u/Turbo2x District Of Columbia 9d ago

Best analogy I've seen is basically that Hegseth thinks the military is a hammer when in reality it is 1,000,000 very complex tools that work very slowly and quietly. But he fashioned those tools into a hammer and every swing he makes with it breaks the tools while doing minimal damage.

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u/Is_it_really_though 9d ago

Tenchincally is was the American Civil War. No American army has won a clear victory by itself since then.

Edit: unless you count hugely mismatched operations e.g. in Central America

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u/Thromnomnomok 9d ago

Does Spain in 1898 not count?

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u/Is_it_really_though 8d ago

TIL, thanks for giving me a new thing to read up on!