The "peaceful" USA has been at war 40.3% of my lifetime.

[Chipper Chat]

All of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Gulf War 1, and Iraq so far = 27 years.
(I am counting a full year for those two Reagan mini-wars).
This is truly remarkable! And breathtaking!
The staggering cost in money and lives alone makes one weep.
I guess my big question is - how many of those 7 wars were really necessary?
I can only vouch for one- WW2 - the war that was supposed to end all wars.

HONOR OUR VETERANS

[Benhurst]

1. And if we had stayed out of World War I, WWII might not have been necessary.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Isolationism lost in 1914. The Lusitania thing didnt help.

If you're refering to the harsh peace imposed on Germany I agree. That enabled Bush, er I mean Hitler.
(Freudian slip there)

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Empires are always at war. It's the nature of the beast. Got to feed the machine. n/t

[ixion]

4. In one form or another, we have been at war all my life

We're always bombing or policing or invading or occupying some smaller country. I cannot recall a time in my life (since '64) that we've not been engaged militarily (read: killing) in some form or another.

[Chipper Chat]

5. Even against ourselves:

i.e. Kent State.
How in the hell could something like that have happened?

[ixion]

7. yep, and don't forget the so-called "War on Drugs"

which has done more to destroy the domestic social fabric than just about anything else.

[Chipper Chat]

8. And Nixon's "war on smut"

Oh, and Ed Meece's "war on porn"
And Bill O'Reilly's "war on christmas"

[kilesimon]

6. war

I mean look at our defense budget.

We've invested in war, it's about Strategery and money...

Oil and stuff.. says a retard in an overpriced suit that runs the US.

[doc03]

9. You are not counting Bosnia and all

the other little miscellaneous bombings of other countries over the years. We bombed Iraq for 6 months before we actually started that war, every day we claimed they were targeting our planes and we would take out a radar site. Even I could see what they were doing was taking out their defenses setting them up for an attack. I remember Rush Limbaugh saying months before we invaded Iraq that the war had already started. If I could see it coming any Senator that voted for the IWR knew what was going down long before the war started if they didn't they either were stupid or didn't have the guts to speak up.

[Chipper Chat]

10. All roads lead back to Karl Rove,

Although I hate his guts, the guy was a genius at manipulation of the American psyche.

[DangerDave921]

11. Doing the math

I'm trying to add the wars up.

WWII was 4 years. Korea was 3. Iraq is 4 (and counting). Gulf War I was less than 1 year. Grenada and Panama were a few weeks combined. So we're up to 12 years without Vietnam.

How long are you counting for Vietnam?

[Chipper Chat]

12. Eisehower sent in the "advisers" in what, 59?

Nixon brought it to an end in '73. That's 14 years of involvement (counting the clandestine years).
Let's give Ronnie the credit for a full year for his stick-it-to Noriega and those nasty Grenada punks. Do the two years I was at war with my parents count?

[DangerDave921]

13. LOL

War with parents counts! :)

Yeah, I was going with actually sending in soldiers to calculate dates.

[doc03]

14. Don't forget we were in a Cold War with the USSR and China all

the times in between! We were even under the impression all the women in the USSR looked like Ernest Borgnine in drag. We thought all the Chinese wanted to kill us, now they are our biggest trading partner. It's amazing what a willing Press spreading the government propaganda can make people believe.