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So then, if territorial ambition is not a stupid reason for war in your opinion (one of the stupidest and most juvenile reasons in mine) where is all this blood that's been spilled on American soil since its founding for stupid reasons? Do you think the Civil War was stupid? Cause that's the only significant bloodletting caused by war that's happened on American soil since it was founded.
Americas wars were -not- bloodier, by a long shot. About half a million people died in the Civil War. (Of course, if you don't think a war about territorial ambition is stupid then it's hard to call this a stupid war given that the war was all about maintaining the territory of the US.)
- A few tens of thousand people died in the Mexican war.
- Less than 10,000 died in the War of 1812 and the Spanish American War.
- Many natives died, but 95% of that was by disease, most of which was completely unrelated to war and related simply to the presence of Europeans (go read Jared Diamond's Putlizer-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel for a fantastic discussion that includes an extensive look at this sort of thing.)
Of course, these wars were about territorial ambition which, by your (silly) definition is a good reason for war.
So where are all these deaths caused by 'silly' wars on American soil? America doesn't know what suffering is compared to Europe and that's true regardless of what historical period you choose.
6 million Jews died in WWII for VERY silly reasons that had nothing to do with territorial ambitions. That's more than Americans have -ever- lost in all wars combined, on or off American soil, "silly" or not.
And those 6 million Jews pale in comparison to the 50 MILLION that died in total in WWII. Don't want to talk about World War II? Ok, let's talk about the between 20 and 40 million+ Russians slaughtered by their own government between 1924 and 1953. (There's no consensus number there. Some historians, like Rummel, says it's as high as 61 million, while others, like Wallechinsky say it's around 20 million.) Don't like that? Ok, let's talk about the approximately 15-25 million that died in WWI.
Give me a break Delerak. You should demand a refund on your education because they're not teaching you anything. I have a LOT of problems with America, but that doesn't change facts.
--matt
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