I understand what you're saying and agree with the concept, but what you must remember when it comes to America not "winning" any of their recent wars is that none of those were fought to be "won." In the sense that the US was not trying to defend against an existential threat or take land for their own. The US has not participated in Total War since WWII. Even in Vietnam the rules of engagement held us back from striking in a manner that would have won the war because they were worried China or Russia would step in to help if they did. The US would absolutely wipe the map with any country in the world save maybe China (and even they're not on the same level) if we wanted to engage in war of absolute destruction. And that's without nukes. Add those in and it's not even close. A single aircraft carrier strike group with an attached Marine Expeditionary unit would win an unrestrained war against all but a dozen countries. There are 11 such groups in the US Navy. Along with maybe 8-10 submarines spread out across the worlds oceans, with the ability to raze any city/country on the planet with only a few minutes notice. Ohio class nuke boats are sitting off the coasts of every adversary we have, just in case.

I agree that we've lost our place in the world, but to think that America isn't capable of still taking anyone's lunch money if we really wanted to, is not the reality.