Could it be possible you've been conditioned to believe nation states who are our enemies are 3rd world countries full of imbeciles who don't have the ability to match our great nation's capability?

This conditioning usually comes from many sources, but a main culprit is the news media. It claims to present an objective reality to viewers, but it still has nationalistic bias in the stories. This nationalism makes us believe we're always great, and our enemies always weak and dumb.