I was referring mainly to kleptocrats enriching themselves through war profiteering when I said "this also aptly describes the West, and US Imperialism"

But you do raise a valid question about whether this applies to losing wars as well.

The US has been at war throughout its history longer than it's been in peace. Some may say that this itself is a failure and a trait shared with failed African states. Or you can say that it's justified because the US has to defend itself against those that 'hate freedom'.

I think the reality is more along the lines that US imperialism loves hegemony and profit even more than freedom, and is willing to back some of the worse regimes and 'un-free' regimes to achieve its aims.

So, in terms of 'defending democracy' around the world, the US has been largely a failure, considering that it's played a larger role in stomping out and overthrowing democratic governments that did not align with its economic interests, rather than 'defending them'. For example, Iran, Indonesia, Chile (and many other fledgling Central and South American democracies)

In terms of 'winning wars', Which wars and military adventures since WW2 has the US actually won?

Korea? Nope, that's still a stalemate.

Vietnam? Hard Nope.

Bay of Pigs (and toppling Cuba in general)? No

1st Gulf War: Perhaps this was a 'win' in a strictly military/tactical sense of achieving the objective of halting Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. But.. this led to...

2nd Iraq War: Toppled Saddam, found no weapons of mass destruction, and massively destabilized the region, leading to the rise of ISIS. Is this a win?

Afghanistan after 20 years? No

Overall, is the Middle East better or worse off after the wars and interventions since 2001? Terrorism is up, not down, and the list of failed states and fertile terrorist breeding grown has grown after US intervention (like Libya). Is this a 'win', especially considering that generations from now will still be paying off the debts the US incurred?

How do you define winning?

Historically the US has had many other conflicts in which it has lost or backed the losing side:

General Custer and Little Big Horn: No

War of 1812: Most of Washington D.C. was burned. Ended in a treaty. Is that a win? If so, not really a decisive one

Russian Civil War: US sent an expeditionary force to join the White Army. The Reds won that one.

There's many more examples of the US losing, backing the wrong side, or bungling operations completely. One of the most embarrassing debacles was the the failure to rescue the hostages in Iran. This one is still very painful to the military aviation community to this day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

But again, this whole Iranian crisis was the result of the US initially overthrowing a democratic government, replacing it with a tyrant, and then the people counter-revolting. Although not a 'war' per se, I think the whole saga of Iran is another example of an unmitigated US policy failure.

I would hardly say that the US has an unbroken record of losing wars.

Has it had much recent success winning them? Can we even define 'winning' considering the wars we're engaged in now are largely asymmetric?