How the Rest of the World Views the American Military

[progressoid]

How the Rest of the World Views the American Military

Paul Waldman lays out a list of significant U.S. military actions over the past 50 years, and it adds up to 15 separate episodes, ranging from full-scale wars (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) to smaller incursions (Grenada, Haiti, Panama). For those of you who are math challenged, this means we've launched a significant overseas assault every 40 months since 1963.
Waldman explains what this means:

Some of these operations worked out very well, others didn't. And just to be clear, this history doesn't tell us whether bombing Syria is a good idea or a bad idea. But if you're wondering why people all over the world view the United States as an arrogant bully, reserving for itself the right to rain down death from above on anyone it pleases whenever it pleases, well there you go. It doesn't matter whether you think some or even all of those actions were completely justified and morally defensible. From here, we tend to look at each of these engagements in isolation, asking whether there are good reasons to go in and whether we can accomplish important goals for ourselves and others. But when when a new American military campaign begins, people in the rest of the world see it in this broader historical context.

1964 - 1975: Vietnam. You remember that one.
1965-1973: Cambodia. We dropped more bombs on the tiny country than had been used in all of World War II.
1965: Dominican Republic. President Johnson sent 22,000 troops to prevent communists from taking over.
1983: Grenada. In the comically named Operation Urgent Fury, we invaded the tiny island nation to stop the commies.
1986: Libya. After two Americans are among those killed in a terrorist bombing of a disco in Germany, President Reagan ordered the bombing of facilities controlled by Muammar Gaddafi.
1989: Panama. In Operation Just Cause, we invaded the country and deposed its leader, Manuel Noriega.
1991: Kuwait/Iraq. Operation Desert Storm.
1992-1995: Somalia. Operation Restore Hope. Didn't end well.
1994: Haiti. President Clinton sent 20,000 troops to restore the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
1995: Bosnia. US and NATO forces intervene in the civil war with a large bombing campaign.
1999: Kosovo. We bomb the Serbians to help the Kosovars.
2001: Afghanistan. Still going!
2003: Iraq.
2011: Libya.
2013: Syria.

http://prospect.org/article/some-context-our-upcoming-bombing-campaign


This is a perspective that's sorely missing from most mainstream discourse. Too many Americans have a seriously blinkered view of our interventions overseas, viewing them as one-offs to be evaluated on their individual merits. But when these things happen once every three years, against a backdrop of almost continuous smaller-scale military action (drone attacks, the odd cruise missile here and there, sending "advisors" over to help an ally, etc.), the rest of the world just doesn't see it that way. They don't see a peaceful country that struggles mightily with its conscience and only occasionally makes a decision to drop a bunch of bombs. They see a country that views dropping bombs as its primary means of dealing with any country weaker than we are.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/how-rest-world-views-american-military

[alsame]

1. Only the Carter years were

free of military actions.

[Scootaloo]

8. Say what?

No, no they weren't. Carter got us involved in Afghanistan - he sighed the orders to provide funding and arms to the men who would come to form the Taliban, in an attempt to overthrow the pro-Soviet Taraki government. This also involved American "advisors" aiding these guerrillas in the fight, both against the Taraki government then against the soviets. That was codenamed Cyclone. There was also Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 to try to use military means to free the hostages in Iran.

[gopiscrap]

4. My father died as a result of the Vietnam War

I remember when I lived in Germany my mom would make sure that I was not wearing any US type of insignia on my clothes. Frankfurt was a pretty liberal city and didn't take kindly to the war. She also explained why so many people around the world hated the friggin US (specially it's government)

[woo me with science]

5. K&R

[brush]

6. You can go back to the 1890s

when we sent Navy gunboats to help ex-pat American planters overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy, and the hundreds more interventions, occupations, invasions, coups and out right wars that have followed on up to the Vietnam war.

We have been continually at war for over a century, no matter what party is in power because the arms manufacturers, the admirals and generals and their bought politicians — the military-industrial complex — demand it and the profits they make from the wars, otherwise they have no reason for being.
(read "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" by Stephen Kinser)

If there are no wars we don't need arms manufacturers (G.E. General Dynamics, Ratheon, et al), we certainly don't need generals and admirals, and we don't need their political puppets.

This is who's calling for the Syria intervention, along with their paid-for mainstream news outlets. Funny how Boehner and Cantor and the rest of the repugs are silent now, but when Bush was president they were very vocal in support of military intervention.

Obama doesn't want to intervene but being the "President of the United States" in a heavy, heavy load because you're shouldering all of the above baggage and complexities while worrying about if it's not done how the critics will be fierce in their condemnation, and if it is done, the condemnation will be even fiercer.

One day a president is going to have the strength to say "No, war is outdated, it's so 20th century. We need to sit down and lead the way through negotiation. Only the most powerful country, the one that can wipe Syria and Assad off the map with it's weapons has the power not to use them, thus giving it the ultimate power.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. Any reason why the

Korean War was left off that list? June 1950 – 27 July 1953

[toby jo]

10. 50 yr. reference.

I've become more deeply ashamed of being American the older I get. Keep hoping the rest of the world will get it together and stand up to us somehow, or I should say with us liberals.

Got this wet dream where we herd all the violent bastards into Texas with their weapons, and then lock them in there...
The rest of us can finally get our peace on.

[JEB]

9. War is a racket.

A very lucrative racket for financiers, not some much for the people actually doing the fighting and dying.

[bluedeathray]

11. Fear Anger Defiance Belligerence

Unle$$ you're a contractor or $ub-contractor. Then bring on the destruction and mayhem! Just not in my backyard...

[Scuba]

12. They think we're this guy ...

[The2ndWheel]

13. Of course it doesn't much matter what people in the rest of the world think

It doesn't matter all that much what US citizens think either. Most other governments in the developed world are fine with what the US does, because who else is going to do those things in today's reality? The governments that don't like it, aren't going to do much about it, since the US will face no economic sanctions or military retaliations from any of the major governments around the world for anything that the US may do.

The US military was the last one standing after the 20th century, and created the basics of whatever international system exists today. What people around the world think is irrelevant.