Wars and rumors of force without war

From a very interesting military manual written in the late 1980's:

"In the last four decades since World War II the Unites States has participated in more wars, caused more casualties, and lavished more money on war and arms than in its entire history up until then. Between 1945 and 1975 was a period during which some 120 wars were recorded globally. The United States participated directly in 27 wars and indirectly in 36 other wars. Even now, out of the 40 odd current (1988) wars raging over the Third World, the United States is involved in over one quarter of them. If one was to judge its involvement on the basis of its arms supply, then involvement is even greater. For instance, out of the 41 countries at war today the United States is the major supplier of arms to 21, and the not-so-major supplier to 18 others.

In all from 1972 to 1981, relative years of American innocence, its military assistance to countries engaged in war was $51 billion. . . The United States has ready at literally any moment's notice forces for projection into any corner of the globe to coordinate and direct its forces for war. It has parcelled out the globe into regional, unified military commands, an arrangement to which no other country has resorted. . . .

At present it has nearly half a million armed personnel abroad in some 333 military installations in some forty countries. In addition some 241 thousand men straddle the globe afloat in U.S. navies ready for war. . . . In addition to fighting wars which according to one estimate, added up to more than 100 years of American wars since 1945 the United States has used its armed forces to interfere in Third World countries on over 260 occasions through acts of invasion, threats of invasion, blockades, demonstrations of military force, surveillance of sovereign states and other similar acts of war euphemistically labeled as 'coercive diplomacy' or 'force without war.'"

This was written nearly 25 years ago when we were just getting warmed up, and when $51 billion really meant something.

Libya is today's example of "force without war."

The tab in Afghanistan is moving toward half a trillion dollars.

Not to mention Iraq.

or Pakistan.

No one in power can afford to bring it to an end.


From another and more instructive manual, Matthew 26:52, "He who takes up the sword shall perish by the sword."