conuly | Went to the diner with Ana, my mom

(She was a bit of a surprise guest.)

We were discussing the election (again) which segued into how no, we can't just "build a wall" and what Mexico finally said to that... which turned into a conversation on the Mexican-American War and since we were already discussing how the President can send troops wherever, I asked a general question - "Exactly how many wars have we been in since WWII?"

Ana guessed "All of them?" and her friend, stuck on the spot, dithered a bit while my mother hinted at her with things like "So, do you know a word that rhymes with hero?" before finally guessing - "None of them?"

Hah, trick question, they're both right. On the one hand, Congress hasn't declared any wars, and on the other hand, I sure can't think of any wars we haven't been involved in! Maybe there have been some, but really, if America isn't involved, is it really a war? (Given the number of people - including my mom, who really ought to know better! - who state that Pearl Harbor is "when WWII began" I'm thinking the answer might actually be no.)

I made sure to point out that we've been at war* for their entire lives, and they did their best to act duly impressed by this fact.

* Except not

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Not all of them, not even by proxy: there was one between Vietnam and China after the fall of Saigon, for example, and I don't think we were involved in the Falklands War. (Those are two I'm reasonably sure of; how many of the wars in Africa since World War II the US was actually involved in I don't know.)

Two out of a bajillion isn't a very high number ;P

(Though I should count up African wars one of these days.)

No, but some people sort things as zero, one, many.

Wars I know of personally in which the US was involved:

Korea
Vietnam
Lebanon
Grenada
Panama
Iraq I
Iraq II

Wars I know about that the US was *not* in:
'48 War of Israeli Independence
'56 Suez conflict
'67 Seven Day war
'73 Yom Kippur war
(in these latter 3, US involvement was limited to threatening Israel if they didn't knock it off before totally defeating our Arab oil-producing partners)

A google search turned up http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/militaryoperations.html , which also lists:
'65 Dominican revolution
'93 Somalia (I think this is chaos, rather than war; "everybody has a gun and is shooting at each other" rather than "there are organized groups shooting at each other")
Haiti
Bosnia
Kosovo

Apparently, if it's black people shooting at each other, it's not important enough to list. I only have 2 African friends, but they both disagree.

The South African revolution was comparatively nonviolent, but only comparatively so. I can understand not calling it a 'war'; not sure I *agree*, but I follow the logic.

Which more or less shows that I've stopped paying attention. Somebody's always fighting *somewhere*.

A more interesting point is that I can't find or think of a terrorist organization that wasn't founded and/or trained and supplied by the American government. (Yes, including ISIS. We gave them *lots* of toys [and money] before deciding they were now Bad Guys.)

I'd like to propose that we make the executive leaders of all countries fight their battles personally, with whiffle-bats.

best,

Joel

And the US was not involved in the Falklands, as redbird pointed out. That one *had* been on my original list, but the bitbucket ate it and I inadvertently left it out in the second go-round.

As I'm thinking about it, there was a conflict in Nicaragua in the late 1970's. IIRC, US involvement was indirect only; giving guns and bombs to both sides, tho' only *officially* to the nominal "legitimate" government.

(Yes, including ISIS. We gave them *lots* of toys [and money] before deciding they were now Bad Guys.)

See also: The Taliban.

I'd like to propose that we make the executive leaders of all countries fight their battles personally, with whiffle-bats.

Sign me up!

I'm still semi-active with the Cascadian movement; I'd proposed there outsourcing our national defense to Finland -- which has no standing military. We'd ask that they find us a retired Lutheran minister to patrol our borders (by bicycle) and scold would-be invaders. We might be able to find one willing to accept a whiffle-bat as a Tool of Appropriate Violence.

Iraq I was technically Kuwait.

We did start there, yes.

Went to the diner with Ana, my mom - and one of Ana's friends!

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Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.

Re: Wars I remember, and those I need to look up.