On US Custerism & Iran. US fatal flaw: A Cripling Lack Of Humility. US dictating Unconditional Surrenders backfiring. A short tour through US military psychology. We see Americans lose war after war, but somehow they never seem to feel like losers. Well, here is why. The last time Americans graciously accepted defeat was in April 1865 when it was Americans surrendering to other Americans. They often even had attended the same school. Only the south of the US has ever collectively felt a crushing defeat. Yes, really. It may be odd to non-Americans, but Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and who cares about the war of 1812, it never quite felt as crushing as losing the Civil War did to many southerners. Plus, they spun the defeat into some kind of defeat with honour. The 11 seceding states that formed the Confederate States were totally ruined after four years of war, but psychologically the losing side walked away with the idea that they had completely outclassed the victors, it was just that the victors had had more resources. Essentially southern whites said: we didn’t lose, we just got tired of whipping the yankees.

During the US Civil War (1861-1865) future president US Grant made a name for himself as Unconditional Surrender Grant, given his initials and the only terms he essentially accepted when Confederate forces surrendered to him first at Fort Donelson, then Vicksburg, and then ultimately at Appomattox, when he accepted Lee’s surrender. Though not the last surrender of Confederate armies in the field, for many Lee’s surrender to Grant marks the end of what is still the bloodiest conflict in all of US history.

Right before the American Civil War the US had defeated Mexico in a war that was clearly designed to steal massive stretches of land from Mexico. After the US Civil War came another win, against Spain. The US defeated Spain and took over plenty of territory, including the Philippines, where US forces slaughtered thousands of locals.

US involvement in the First World War was not particularly spectacular as they were late to the game and only entered in 1917, its green troops on the western front often got shot to pieces in situations the veteran troops of France, England and Germany had learned to avoid. Have you ever wondered why the US produces tons of war movies, but there are few about the First World War? There is also the unpleasant aspect that its black troops were treated like full human beings in France whereas back home racism was still peaking.

It of course keeps raining World War 2 movies with American heroics. These movies never give credit to the efforts of the Soviet Union. About 9 out of 10 German soldiers who were killed during World War 2 fell on the Eastern Front against the Soviets, but American cinema will have you believe the US and its western allies decided everything on one day in Normandy on the sixth of June 1944.

When Confederate forces got defeated in 1865 and several of their key generals accepted that defeat instead of stupidly opting to change the war into some long drawn out guerilla war against the north, the defeated soldiers often marched back home as whole compagnies and whole regiments. The defeat was collective. Defeat in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq didn’t feel like that, because soldiers returned individually. They often sat with their stories alone. They had tasted war, but society they were returning back to had little interest in what had happened to them and life for civilians had just gone on. During the US Civil War southern civilians tasted defeat directly. They hungered, they saw houses and cities in ruin, they saw their soldiers returning, gaunt and in rags. The defeat was not abstract, but very real. This is very different from the US defeats in later wars. And of course, US cinema will always find some heroic episodes to focus on to make even those defeats feel glorious. Even in an anti-war movie like Platoon the protagonist walks away as the victor. Though the movie does show some of the horror the US inflicted upon the local Vietnamese population.

When it comes to defeat there is in fact really only one event that registered truly nationally, not just in the southern, formerly slave holding states and that is the defeat of Custer at the Little Big Horn in 1876. Although this should be a non-event, since only about 260 US soldiers died there, whereas about ten years earlier about 650,000 (!) American soldiers had died, this little battle continues to fuel an outpour of books, movies, documentaries, even comic books.

And the story is as Trumpian and Hegsethian in nature as it gets even though it took place 150 years ago. An overly ambitious cavalry commander who was such a dandy he designed his own uniforms insisted on winning glory for his unit alone, the 7th Cavalry, totalling about 700 troopers and to his horror he brushed against the largest Native American village ever, totally about 10,000 natives, many of them highly fired up warriors.

That same Custerism rules today showing that the US is capable of producing extremely detailed and truly high quality analysis of past mistakes and then goes and makes the same mistake again.

Except that this time this Custerism on Iran doesn’t cost the lives of about 260 inexperienced soldiers, it’s only blowing up the entire global economy.

If Americans could finally learn that they have the biggest military budget in all of human history, but also have a long history of faily miserably to achieve their goals, maybe, just maybe, they’d pour those dollars into something that actually helps Americans, like real social insurance or real healthcare for all US citizens.

But that’s asking for a lot, because this time around the losing war didn’t even have any clear goal to begin with, other than feeding the egos of a few vapid machos and supporting the sinister machinations of Netanyahu in his bid to finally establish his coveted Greater Israel.

The dyamics of US defeats haven’t changed much since World War 2, but they surely are beginning to look more and more ridiculous, in fact, US actions are inexcusable, criminal, futile and grotesque.

Exactly what you assume happens when a country obsessed with decadent entertainment makes a casino boss and real estate hustler with the factual knowledge of a relatively sharp 4 year old its leader because he throws around better insults than the other billionaire pre-selected candidates.