And the big boys are hiding behind “national security” which is making US, the American people LESS SECURE. And our dalliance with that crazy mofo Netanyahu is drawing us into Armageddon faster than you can say Jiffy Peanut Butter.

World War II was necessary and just. But we also had every right to fight the Reds in Korea. Vietnam was a mistake, but that really wasn’t obvious at the time, Iraq was pure naked aggression. We also live in a democracy, if the people want to pick on some third world country because they figure it will mean more jobs and prosperity, or because we don’t like the leader, fine, then we should do it. That’s what happened to Athenian democracy in Sicily 2400 years ago, and it cost them their empire. After all, wars are judgement calls, there can be honest differences of opinions about whether or not to fight. That can only be settled by passing the decision on to the nation, as the founders spelled out precisely in the constitution. But we should all know up front what we are doing and why. We shouldn’t go to war or topple governments because Mr Hearst wants to sell newspapers, or because United Fruit wants to corner the banana market, or because we want to take over BP’s oil business in Iran, or because the democratically elected president of Chile is a Socialist.

From a strictly practical point of view, that kind of American exceptionalism just pisses people off. And sometime in the future, somebody might just decide it gives them the right, justifiably or not, to get even.

I considered editing out the pre-1900 incidents, legitimate acts of self-defense, as well as the domestic actions, and trying to sort out the formatting, but I was afraid I might leave something out I didn’t want to, or otherwise damage the text. I copied out the whole list and you can follow the link and decide for yourself which were justified and which were not. Still, the chronology pretty much coincides with the American rise as an imperial power at the turn of the 20th century, struggling to catch up with the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and other European colonialists.

I also considered not writing anything at all, but just providing a link. But the dramatic impact of seeing that list all in one place. was too powerful to pass up. Neither do I want to give the impression that the United States is a particularly bloodthirsty and rapacious rogue state. This is what nations do, particularly big, powerful ones. We are fundametally no worse than any other nation in history, but we are intrinsically no better, either. This is neither a glorification nor a condemnation of American exceptionalism. It’s a denial of it.

One minor, more partisan footnote: The Bolshevik Revolution in the USSR wasn’t until 1917, and a great deal of our interventions involve pre-Communist Era incursions into New World banana republics, so the readiness of the US to engage in military adventures isn’t just about fighting Communism and defending our freedom. It’s about acquiring, extending, and defending US economic power, or specifically, corporate interests. Or to put it bluntly, American boys’ blood and US taxpayer dollars are out there making the world safe for American business and commerce. Yeah, I know its the same tiresome old whine, but its a long list, ain’t it?

I read somewhere recently somebody making the assertion that the United States is far and away the most belligerent nation to have ever existed; that nobody has ever been at war as frequently and as many times as we have. Maybe so.

Funny how we like to think of ourselves as “peace loving”.