Was the 2003 Iraq invasion the first time.....

[90-percent]

Was the 2003 Iraq invasion the first time in American history that the USA fought a war of aggression? i saw this on Rachel recently and I'm googled out trying to internet hunt it down.

Wasn't it American policy since we first became a nation in 1776 (1787?) that we only engage in War when we are attacked first?

As an aside, I'm pretty confident that the Iraq war was the first time in American history when torture was official military policy, at least back to the times of George Washington. And isn't it delightful that Jeb would not rule out using it again if he became President? I mean, it worked so well for us the first time. Well, it was helpful for the neocons to get bogus made up info to bolster their case for the illegal invasion in the first place.

And while I'm at it, it seems the question of the invasion being legal at all is still open. "Some people say" it was by the book, and "Other people say" it was a war crime and the architects are criminals. (Like the late Vincent Bugliosi's book; "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder&quot

When google fails me, I turn to my DU buds. Thanks

-90% Jimmy

[GummyBearz]

1. No

The war of 1812 was an attempt to take land away from Britain

[KingCharlemagne]

2. Vietnam was a war of aggression, in my opinion. - nt

[GGJohn]

8. I was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, did 2 tours,

and I 100% agree with you that this was a war of aggression by the US.

Dude, we've got to stop agreeing like this, before you know it, you'll have me believing in more gun control.

[KingCharlemagne]

9. LOL - Well, it was never actually a 'war' in the technical sense. But, come to think of it, neither

was Operation Shocking and Awful. So not sure what to make of that.

[Sherman A1]

3. Well,

off the top of my head The Mexican American War, The Spanish American War (which I believe involved some torture as well, but not absolutely sure), parts of the War of 1812 (invasion of Canada) comes to mind, also the Blackhawk War. It really depends upon your interpretation in some instances.

[nationalize the fed]

4. no

you only need to go back to 1999

The 78 day bombing of Serbia was the first PNAC war and sold by lies. A test run- to see how many lies they could tell and get away with it. Turns out quite a few...


http://web.archive.org/web/20030210080835/http://www.newamericancentury.org/balkans.htm


Even Henry Kissinger said the US "Provoked" that war

And there's this:

Covert United States foreign regime change actions

The United States has been involved in and assisted "regime change" without the overt use of the United States military. Often, such operations are tasked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

1 Cold War
1.1 Syria 1949
1.2 Iran 1953
1.3 Guatemala 1954
1.4 Tibet 1955–70s
1.5 Indonesia 1958
1.6 Cuba 1959
1.7 Iraq 1960–63
1.8 Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960–65
1.9 Dominican Republic 1961
1.10 South Vietnam 1963
1.11 Brazil 1964
1.12 Chile 1970–73
1.13 Afghanistan 1979–89
1.14 Turkey 1980
1.15 Poland 1980–89
1.16 Nicaragua 1981–90
1.16.1 Destablization through CIA assets
1.16.2 Arming the Contras

2 Post–Cold War
2.1 Iraq 1992–96
2.2 Venezuela 2002
2.3 Iran 2005–present

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Well, there was that whole war against the Native Americans

so we could kick them off their land and colonize it.

[90-percent]

6. Thank you for all the historically literate responses

The reason I asked is that, on a recent Rachel Maddow show, she said the invasion was the first time in American history we invaded without being attacked first and that was unprecedented.


I think I may have extremely misunderstood that show.

-90% Jimmy

[davidn3600]

7. Vietnam is the obvious one

Mexican-American war was pretty much an aggressive one. President Polk, believing in Manifest Destiny, wanted to expand American territory. And the result of the war is we took the entire southwest territory all the way to the Pacific.

Before Polk, President Andrew Jackson slaughtered any Native Americans that stood in his way.

[Lurks Often]

10. No, add Haiti* and Nicaragua* and the Russian Revolution

and those are just off the top of my head.

Haiti and Nicaragua occurred between WWI and WWII: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_civil_war_(1926%E2%80%9327) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti#20th_century

US troops were sent to help the White Russians against the Communists in 1919 in Northern Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Bear_Expedition


As for defining "war", it is subjective. I have no doubt the American Indian or the Russian Communists viewed the actions of the United States as war, even if there was no official declaration from Congress.

[PowerToThePeople]

11. No, many wars of aggression. Every one since WW2.

[bemildred]

12. I agree with the general assessement here, most of our wars have been aggressive wars.

The exceptions are when someone was stupid enough or pissed off enough to attack us. WWI, WWII, the Civil War.

So I suppose you could say the war on al Qaeda is defensive, too.

[-none]

13. al Qaeda?

We did our part to arm and train them also. We seem to have a habit of turning 'friends' into enemies so we can them fight them... At least in the Middle East. Would they even exist without the United States?

[bemildred]

14. Come, come, they definitely did attack us.

The fact that we were complicit in their rise is just par for the course.

[-none]

16. I never said they didn't attack us.

But why did they?

[bemildred]

18. And I never said they would exist without us. nt

[madokie]

15. I went through and graduated from SERE school

spent a tour of duty there and we taught that it was against the Geneva conventions and we tried to ready the students for it in case any of them were captured in Vietnam and were tortured. Its wrong and the perpetrators of that policy should be tried and if found guilty Hanged by the neck until dead. My opinion.

[Recursion]

17. Mexico, Cuba, the Philippines...

You could probably count the Indian Wars too, but that was at least land the US claimed at the time of the wars...

[HereSince1628]

19. Well, the US attacked first after declaring war of 1812...but

I suppose the question of what is an attack is also at issue. The US claimed it's merchant seamen were being captured and enslaved by Britain.