Afghanistan defeated the Indians, the British, the Russians, and is well on its way to defeating the US. When there's hardly much of a government to start with, blowing up the capital hardly counts for anything.
The most spectacular feature of US military intervention since WWII is its almost endless capacity for failure.
The US can just about handle tiny impoverished states in its back yard. It's fairly good at interfering in other countries through 'covert diplomacy' psyops, and economic oppression.
But as a military power, it's a joke. The US failed in Korea, failed in Vietnam and Cambodia, failed in Iraq and is failing in Afghanistan and against Somalian pircay. In any conventional confrontation with a reasonably sized enemy, the US military machine will be cut to ribbons.
santiago:
governments in places like Iran worry about hostilities against French ships or other assets because they know the French can use American logistical resources to hit back, if needed.
Why would Iran open hostilities against French ships?
Not that Europe couldn't mount a potentially heavy-handed economic retaliation in such an event, even if we can't terror bomb their capital. International power is not measured simply by the amount of powder you can burn over somebody's cities.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
