Only18 Years of Peace Cameron Greene Oct 3 2016
Post# of 27041
Cameron Greene
Oct 3 2016 · Author has 530 answers and 6.9m answer views
In our entire 240 year existence, the U.S. has only been at COMPLETE peace, meaning no military operation or expedition of any kind, at least to the public’s knowledge, for a total of 18 years.
To put this in perspective:
Since 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. has spent a minute total of 7% or 18 years of its entire existence in peace
If you pick any year from 1776 till 2016, there’s a 93% chance that the U.S. was involved in a conflict somewhere around the globe
The U.S. has not gone a single decade without a military conflict
No U.S. President qualifies as a “peacetime president”
The only continuous stretch of peaceful years was from 1935–1940 during the Great Depression and forced isolationism
The only years that have no trace of conflict are 1796, 1797, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1826, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1897, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1997, and 2000
Since the end of World War 2, the U.S. has engaged in 201 armed conflicts around the world. This represents over 81% of all conflicts since the end of World War 2
The U.S. is seen by the much of the world as the “Number One Threat to World Peace”
Now, this isn’t to say that we are a bloodthirsty country. Indeed, many of these wars were of a defensive nature as they were offensive. But it is staggering when you look at the statistics and see numbers such as these.
In the end, one must take into account the relatively small scope of existence the U.S. has occupied in time compared with such countries as Great Britain or France when taking these statistics into account and avoid sweeping generalizations in the face of said facts.