The wreckage of a U.S. E-3 after being hit on the ground by Iranian drones
Hua Bin – The Unz Review Aug 14, 2026
It makes my skin crawl whenever I hear someone recite the mantra – “the US has the greatest military in the history of the world”.
I know you have heard the same “truism” before.
Obviously, such “American patriots” have never heard of Genghis Khan.
The Mongols conquered most of Eurasia in the 13th century and put together the largest contiguous land empire in history.
They seldom lost a battle in the process.
The cheerleaders of the US war machine seem also unaware that German Wehrmacht was probably the deadliest military in the world in 1940 or the Soviet Red Army in 1945.
The pinnacle for US military power was the Desert Storm campaign against Saddam Hussein in 1991.
But it was 35 years ago.
The US has lost pretty much every major war since then.
I wouldn’t care to call the Venezuela snatch job either war or major. Wars usually involve your enemy fighting back.
Before the Desert Storm, the US also lost its last major war in Vietnam.
So, the Desert Storm is basically bookended by defeats. It is the exception that proves the rule.
In short, calling the US military the “greatest” is a hyperbole that has little empirical data to back up.
Perhaps a bit hard to swallow for those allergic to truth but it is what it is.
Statistically, there is no doubt the US military is the most expensive in the history of the world. But with a mixed record of effectiveness, if one is charitable.
I’m no doctor but it is clear anyone who claims the US military is the GOAT would medically benefit from a frontal lobotomy.
For the Iran war, the US’s latest adventure, Trump has been getting a shitstorm of criticism.
No argument that Trump is an ignorant and malignant doofus who was baited by the Jews and is guilty of launching a criminal war.
But let’s be fair – he was an idiot for starting the war, but it is the US military that has lost it on the battlefield.
The much-touted US war machine has simply failed to achieve victory, period.
I wrote an essay in mid-March, three weeks after the surprise attack, and titled it “Iran has already won”. https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/iran-has-already-won
Back then, I was referring to Iran’s pending strategic victory of leveraging the Hormuz to defeat US war goals.
But things have gone farther than my predictions.
At this point, one can argue – with a strong case – the Pentagon has militarily lost the war.
It has dropped a lot of bombs and killed many but has failed to achieve any tangible success on the battlefields.
Unless its war objective is to hand Tehran control over Hormuz and make it the dominant regional power. Wink wink.
The failure in Iran has exposed the US military is truly a “paper tiger”, as Chairman Mao observed more than half a century ago.
Defining military victory
Chairman Mao wrote that “politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.”
Carl von Clausewitz said that war is an extension of politics.
Textbooks define “military victory” as: translating battlefield success into enduring political outcomes.
It requires not just defeating an enemy’s armed forces, but compelling that adversary to accept a permanent shift in political will and establishing a favorable post-conflict order.
By that measure, the US has failed miserably and totally – it didn’t defeat Iran’s army; the shift in its political will is to become more anti-USrael; and the war established a less favorable post-conflict order for the US, with Iran securing de facto control over Gulf oil supply.
Some argue that USrael achieved tactical/operational victory over Iran since they destroyed much of Iranian air defense and navy, killed its political and military leaders, and caused severe economic and humanitarian hardship.
They are wrong even on that account.
This line of argument is equivalent to a boxer claiming victory in the middle rounds because they landed more hits, ignoring the fact that their opponent is still standing and actively fighting back.
In the theater of war, just as in the ring, absorbing massive punishment but delivering the final, paralyzing counter-punch—or simply outlasting the opponent’s stamina until they want out—is the definition of winning.
Iran has effectively used a rope-a-dope strategy by absorbing the initial strikes from USrael while preserving its most lethal asset – the ability to choke global energy at the Strait of Hormuz.
Furthermore, Iran has used asymmetrical warfare with drones and missiles to achieve horizontal escalation dominance against the USrael targets across the Gulf region.
Iran has denied the enemies their political goals and forced the US to sue for peace.
It has defended its sovereignty and is dictating the endgame – the definition of success.
Iran’s success is not only at the strategic level. Even at a tactical level, Iran has prevailed as it has destroyed far more high-value US military assets than it has lost.
These include strategic early warning radars, fighter jets, AWACs, refueling tankers, ISR drones, and nearly all US bases in the region.
Iran has also exhausted much of US offensive and defensive arsenal, significantly reducing its capability to continue the fight or wage wars elsewhere.
Even the Trump regime now realizes it will almost certainly lose any war of attrition if a prolonged conflict ensues.
Most importantly, Iran has shown the world the US military is hardly an indominable power when confronted with a committed opponent willing and able to fight back.
The US military has lost fair and square
1) It has used all its power to wage a destructive war but just couldn’t win
Winning is the result of both intent and capability.
No one can claim the US military has lacked the “intent”.
It has thrown everything it has at Iran, including unproven military AI technology such as the Palantir Maven system which resulted in the massacre of 168 innocent school girls on the first day of the war.
The US has held back nothing, short of nuclear bombs.
I wrote about how the US has thrown the “kitchen sink” but to no avail in another earlier essay.
The US War Machine Underwhelms – part 1
> It makes my skin crawl whenever I hear someone recite the mantra – “the US has the greatest military in the history of the world”.
It makes my skin crawl when baiters spout that it’s never won a war.
> The Mongols conquered most of Eurasia in the 13th century and put together the largest contiguous land empire in history.
And? Besides, I see what you did there. Inserted “contiguous” so you could ignore the larger empires in favor of your raghead one.
> They seldom lost a battle in the process.
Seldom huh?
> The cheerleaders of the US war machine seem also unaware that German Wehrmacht was probably the deadliest military in the world in 1940 or the Soviet Red Army in 1945.
Wait, I thought it was the Mongols? And aren’t you cheering for death there?
> The pinnacle for US military power was the Desert Storm campaign against Saddam Hussein in 1991.
Nope. The pinnacle was WW2, because that’s what started their empire.
> The US has lost pretty much every major war since then.
“pretty much” huh?
> I wouldn’t care to call the Venezuela snatch job either war or major. Wars usually involve your enemy fighting back.
LOL. It wasn’t big enough so we’ll just ignore them taking over a huge country with a huge amount of oil. It’s nothing. Just move along…
> Before the Desert Storm, the US also lost its last major war in Vietnam.
No one won in Vietnam. Ergo, no one lost.
> So, the Desert Storm is basically bookended by defeats. It is the exception that proves the rule.
Iraq and Afghanistan. Syria, Libya, Korea, Grenada, Panama, the Gulf War, Somalia, …
None of those were defeats.
In fact, show me a defeat.
> Statistically, there is no doubt the US military is the most expensive in the history of the world. But with a mixed record of effectiveness, if one is charitable.
Now it’s a “mixed record”?
> I’m no doctor but it is clear anyone who claims the US military is the GOAT would medically benefit from a frontal lobotomy.
Are you drunk? Or a raghead obsessed with goats?
> For the Iran war… The much-touted US war machine has simply failed to achieve victory, period.
The war is still going!
> I wrote an essay in mid-March, three weeks after the surprise attack, and titled it “Iran has already won”. https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/iran-has-already-won
Did you? And has it?
> At this point, one can argue – with a strong case – the Pentagon has militarily lost the war.
Argue away… but the boats are still there.
> It has dropped a lot of bombs and killed many but has failed to achieve any tangible success on the battlefields.
There haven’t been any battlefields!
> Unless its war objective is to hand Tehran control over Hormuz and make it the dominant regional power. Wink wink.
So now you’re trying to be clever and hint that America and Iran are on the same side?
> The failure in Iran has exposed the US military is truly a “paper tiger”, as Chairman Mao observed more than half a century ago.
These people love to quote famous people from the past because they themselves have nothing to say.
> Iran has effectively used a rope-a-dope strategy by absorbing the initial strikes from USrael while preserving its most lethal asset – the ability to choke global energy at the Strait of Hormuz.
They’re both choking it. And it isn’t “global energy”, it’s just a small part of it. OPEC can and is making up the difference. It’s been manipulating the oil supply, turning it on and off to keep the flow and prices high, for decades.
> Iran has denied the enemies their political goals and forced the US to sue for peace.
Who’s suing for peace?
> It has defended its sovereignty and is dictating the endgame – the definition of success.
It’s a dictatorship, like every other country in the world. For the actual Iranians it isn’t a “victory”.
> Iran’s success is not only at the strategic level. Even at a tactical level, Iran has prevailed as it has destroyed far more high-value US military assets than it has lost.
Counting the sheckels…
> Iran has also exhausted much of US offensive and defensive arsenal, significantly reducing its capability to continue the fight or wage wars elsewhere.
Most of that went to the Ukraine.
> Even the Trump regime now realizes it will almost certainly lose any war of attrition if a prolonged conflict ensues.
Speaking for others like all good propagandists.
> It has thrown everything it has at Iran, including unproven military AI technology such as the Palantir Maven system which resulted in the massacre of 168 innocent school girls on the first day of the war.
The Iranian government themselves “corrected” that to 142. Not that any school was blown up. Every time there’s a war a school is the first thing to go! And always a girls school too.
> The US has held back nothing, short of nuclear bombs.
It’s held back 1.5m soldiers.
Why has the UK Government chosen to relocate from London too Manchester along with the BBC also moving out whilst at present a dirty great Chinese Embassy is being built in London?
Why has that same Goverment invited in, and decided too barrack an invading army on English soil?
Why does the the TTS allow this Chinaman too parade it’s views here quoting Mao Tse Tung who led the Chinese Cultural Revolution killing all the old people equivalent too the population of our own country in the Sixties?
The US military is involved in either huge faked battles and “wars” but only on paper and Hollywood sets. Our greatest military in the world just escorts opium and other commodities out of whatever country we may be bombing. Ever wonder why America had such a heroin pandemic during Vietnam, or why weve had another opium problem these last 3 decades from afghan. Those were not tomatoes being brought by Air Force planes. The military does win its wars when it uses its actors out of american bases, directing their bullshit on Americans.
germany they could only conquer after their better
lying jewish propaganda medias could make over
hundreds of other nations crazy with their antinazi
buloxs . german + japanese soldiers were the best
in their times (+the vietkong) !
“The pinnacle for US military power was the Desert Storm campaign against Saddam Hussein” Listen, Hua, they could only do that because they had the British army fighting right beside them.
“The greatest mil’turry the whirled has evah see’d! USA! USA! USA! ” 🤓🤓🤓
The United States of America has not existed for decades, in anything other than name.
Its demise began with the establishment of the Jewish “federal” “reserve,” and was made final in 1945.
There are still many Americans around, who could set things right, but you will need to murder on a scale not seen since The Battle of The Bulge, and you must all become ruthless racists, anti-semites, and White supremacists.
If you are up to that, you had better also read “Mein Kampf,” particularly section 4.12. State and Economy.
Get the Thomas Dalton Translation.
The ball is in your court, but it is leaking air, and the subhumans are stealing the flooring! 👻
@o
Corn fructose syrup nogs & spics in your country, put there by Russian kikes, are the problem..
They are doing the same here in the UK… Turd world shite being forced into every English institution & part of the country.
An organised civil war is the only possible remedy
The USA has won all her wars she participated in Hollywood movies. There…