Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Locobot
Not sure how that calculation works out, there were 20-30 nations involved in both ww1 and ww2, so that's 40-60 involvements from europe right there. Also Norway and Switzerland are not EU members (yet).
|
Well, that's only if you count WW2 and many seperate wars, as opposed to one war. Not really appropriate now, is it?
If we consider "war" on a singular basis and limit ourselves to the past 100 years, we get the following for Europe.
WWI
WWII
Korea (kind of tenous, as only a few countries were involved and it was at the behest of the UN)
European forces were involved in peace-keeping actions, but these don't constitute wars and certainly are not of the kind implied in the original post.
When we consider the US, we get teh following (off the top of my head)
WWI
WWII
Korea (ditto)
Vietnam
- Laos (illegal and unofficial action)
- Cambodia (illegal and unofficial action)
Attempted invasion of Cuba
Invasion of Nicaragua
Invasion of Haiti
Attack on Libya (not really a war)
Somalia (Peace Making mission, so may not be appropriate)
First invasion of Iraq
Second invasion of Iraq
I'm sure I can probably find more.
Now let's see. That's about 3:13. Let's say 3:9 if we ignore some of the more minor actions. That means the US has been directly involved in three times as many wars as "Old Europe" since the beginning of the century.
QED
Quote:
|
Not sure I entirely agree here, the last 50 years of relative peace is the longest Europe has seen, ever. Europe owes this solely to peace kept by the U.S. with NATO and the Soviet Union with the Eastern Bloc. Until the EU develops a true multi-national military with autonomous control to police it's own territories, there is a cause for foreign military presence.
|
Well I disagree with you entirely. It was implied, indeed stated, that the only reason the war didn't break out in Europe (ie,
amongst European countires) was because US forces were there. That's just complete nonesense. The US forces were there to defend against Soviet/GDR attacks and not to stop France and Germany fighting (for example).
Sheesh...
Mr Mephisto