"Fighting for our freedom" - when was the last time this really happened? [View All]

[Hugabear]

We're constantly being told to revere the military because they're "fighting for our freedom". But when was the last time this actually happened? WWII was the last war that one could legitimately say that our freedom was threatened. Throughout our nation's 230+ year history, you could probably count on one hand the number of times our freedom has been in jeopardy. The vast majority of our wars have been either wars of conquest (Mexican War, Spanish-American War, Indian Wars) or wars to protect our "interests" overseas (Vietnam, Korea, Kuwait, even WWI could fit that category, as we were not being directly threatened).

I know I'm probably going to get flamed, but I am not attacking our military with this post. Rather, I am attacking the way our military has been used throughout history. Rather than using the military as a last-ditch resort to protecting our freedom, it's been used primarily as a tool to inflict our will throughout the world.

How much money would we save if we went from an imperialistic military to strictly a self-defense military? How many of our country's pressing issues could we help alleviate with the billions we spend every year trying to instill our will upon the rest of the world?