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

[conuly]

(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

Comments

[redbird]

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.)

[conuly]

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

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

[redbird]

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