Which of These Wars Should Have Been Prevented?

[Publius1787]

Which of These Wars Should Have Been Prevented?

In other words, Which of these wars were mistakes and a waste of human life and should not have had U.S. involvement? When considering this question I mean it in the context of the descision to commit to war at the time by the U.S. Congress or the President.

 

[Warrior102]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

 

[percysunshine]

Should or Could?

There is a difference.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

All of them, obviously.

Whether they could or not, that's a different question.

 

[Publius1787]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

I only have 10 options. Putting all of these would have been impossible Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Publius1787]

Should or Could?

There is a difference.

I beleive the question speaks for itself.

 

[Warrior102]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

I only have 10 options. Putting all of these would have been impossible Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gotcha

 

[Publius1787]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

I only have 10 options. Putting all of these would have been impossible Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gotcha

What happened to the good ol days? We definatly need to bring this policy back!
Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1854 – Nicaragua. July 9 to 15. Naval forces bombarded and burned San Juan del Norte (Greytown) to avenge an insult to the American Minister to Nicaragua

Looks like Franklin Pierce didnt take any shit!

 

[geauxtohell]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

I agree.

Well, up to the "take action on Saudi Arabia" thing.

 

[Publius1787]

All of them, obviously.

Whether they could or not, that's a different question.

That wasent the question. I have revised my post.

 

[Sunni Man]

World War II was the last legitimate war that we fought..

Every war since then has been fought to finance the military-industrial complex or on behalf of the zionists.

 

[QUENTIN]

All of the above were bad decisions (I wouldn't characterize them as "mistakes" since that seems more accidental) and wastes of human life and resources, as all wars are.

 

[Publius1787]

I wonder why so few of you chose the war of 1812 and so many chose the spanish american war. If I am not mistaken I beleive Spain was the first to declair war though everyone knew it was coming. The American Civil war was perhaps one of the easyest to avoid.

 

[Old Rocks]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

You have a very good point there. It is strange that the very people that talked the toughest, when faced with real terrorism, failed to do what was neccessary. From Reagan to 'W'.

 

[Old Rocks]

You did not list the wars on the Native Americans. Nor the Mexican-American War. How about the many times we put marines into south and central American countries to protect economic interests?

 

[Publius1787]

You did not list the wars on the Native Americans. Nor the Mexican-American War. How about the many times we put marines into south and central American countries to protect economic interests?

I didnt list alot of things. Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . But I only have 10 options avalable due to the limits on the poll. What would you have me do?

 

[Publius1787]

Interesting question, however, you didn't include the War on Terrorism.
In 1983, when the U.S. Marine barracks were bombed, we should have stopped terrorism in it's tracks. Next day. That, to me, was the beginning of the WOT - and what happened on 9/11 would have never happened had we took action on Saudi Arabia and the rest of the contributors.
We have coddled that nation long enouh.
Been to a gas station for a fill up lately?

You have a very good point there. It is strange that the very people that talked the toughest, when faced with real terrorism, failed to do what was neccessary. From Reagan to 'W'.

Yip. Carter, and Clinton pushed us back years in the war on terror.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

All of them, obviously.

Whether they could or not, that's a different question.

That wasent the question. I have revised my post.

Well, that's very different. In my response I was assuming whether any of those wars in general should've been avoided (ie, the Germans should've avoided letting that extremist fuck take the country to war). Strictly from the US point of view, the answer would be different, but since I already voted on the poll I'll just go through these one by one.

War of 1812 - US had a pretty solid motive for war, an illegal blockade on it's trade, but used it as an opportunity to expand into Canada and break resistance from the Indians in order to expand more easily westerwards. Could've been avoidable, but seems like it was kind of legitimate.

Civil War - This one is tough, on the one hand, the US had absolutely no right to go to war with secessionists, while on the other the secessionists were just really bad. In other words, the war was basically illegitimate, but was historically vindicated by leading to the abolition of slavery (perhaps the most disgusting institution ever engaged in by man, even if that was not the real pretext for it which it was fought). Should it have been avoided? It's iffy, but probably not.

Spanish American War - this War was nothing but a propaganda coup for yellow journalism. The Americans literally used and manipulated the Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Filipino independence movement and crafted an empire of their own out of Spain's rotting carcass. Totally useless and avoidable.

WWI - In this one, the United States sent troops to defend a couple of big trading partners from a war they were not entirely free of blame from causing, in order to get a spoil or two. Not particularly necessary, should've probably been avoided, but world history would be much different that's for sure.

WWII - This one's kind of a no-brainer. US gets attacked by Japan (though the Japanese sort of had good reason to). The European theater is debatable but, I mean, c'mon... it was against Hitler for chrissakes.

Korean War - This one was pretty legit. Pretty clear [UN Charter] "Chapter VII" affair. (Country gets invaded, international community responds)

Vietnam War - This one was just stupid. Blackmailed by the French, the Americans undertake the effort of propping up a corrupt sub-colonial dictatorship that's hated by virtually all Vietnamese, alienating and then fighting the anti-colonial liberation movement. The result was a Communist Vietnam, millions of Vietnamese dead, and 60K dead Americans. Moronic and useless.

Gulf War - Another clear Chapter VII violation of the UN charter, this one is kind of legit.

Iraq War - An illegal war of aggression started under false pretenses for virtually no reason. This one speaks for itself.

Afghanistan War - This one's kind of silly. Deceivingly framed as "self-defense," the US decides to try to kill a band of insane fanatical thugs by bombing and occupying an entire country. Whoa there guys, relax - some clever intel and a single special-ops team might be enough... and it was. Should've been avoided.

So we here got 5 that could've should've would've been avoided (Spanish, WWI, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan), 3 that could've been avoided but were kinda justified (1812, Korea, Gulf War), and 2 that were kinda unavoidable (Civil, WWII).

 

[ginscpy]

The American Civil War and World War One both had parades and flower-throwing etc at the start.

Jolly good fun............. (none of that after Pearl Harbor - just anger)

Go Figure.

 

[sparky]

I'm told princes, kings, and what were considered the powers that be in medival times led their contingency into battle

So i wonder how many recent conflicts that our brave youth mitigates would be considered an ill advised adventure via noisey chickenhawks of recent times, should they be subjected to such a lofty leadership task