American warmongers

One of the recurrent themes of French-bashers in the years following the invasion of Iraq is the near obsessional hammering of the feats of the American army which supposedly came twice in the last century to save the butt of the French. Typically the sort of bragging the bullies in the schoolyards are fond to resort to, in the absence of intellectual achievements they could boast of… For one, isn’t there any other reason for a country to be proud of than its ability to sow death and destruction? But let’s take them at face value. Which are the wars the USA waged and how did it fare?

• Revolutionary wars: hmmmm, does one need to be reminded of how the French saved the butt of Americans. French-bashers very much dislike this episode to the point of revisionism (the French came when all was already settled and victory secured…)

• War of 1812 against the British. Although pretending otherwise, Americans lost nearly all the battles and the White House and the Capitol were even set on fire by their now faithful allies… (Don’t like to be reminded of that episode neither…)

• Mexican-American war (1846/1847). A war of aggression on the basis of expansionism. Won against a rural country in permanent state of civil war, totally unprepared, under-armed and in near total disarray. Nothing to be particularly proud of, all the more since Mexicans still mourn the land the gringos grabbed from their country…

• Civil War (1860/1864). Internal affair… Well, one the two belligerents lost. Southerners don’t really like to be reminded that they didn’t win (as a matter of fact, they lost…)…

• Spanish-American War (1898). A four months skirmish against a country 3,500 miles afar which had no possibilities whatsoever to defend itself, was at least three times less populous, under-industrialised and extremely weak politically. Another war of aggression based on a pretence. Spaniards don’t like to be reminded that episode from the great friend they accompanied in Iraq. American warmongers are usually rather discreet on this feat of their country that permitted the Philippines to become an American colony, and turned Guam and the Mariana Islands into American territory...

• The Philippine-American War (1899). An other example of a war fought against an opponent incommensurably weaker than America. The U.S. was already fighting an insurgency war, a war of independence. A forgotten war Americans aren’t really ready to be proud of… 

• WW1. Now, this is becoming a little more serious… As everyone knows, America declared war on Germany (April 6th, 1917) not to come to the rescue of the French and the British but mainly because there was a real danger of economic crisis, with the German fleet sinking every single American ship sailing to England… Noteworthy, up to then, America maintained diplomatic relations with Germany while France and Great Britain were loosing soldiers by the hundreds of thousands… Now, not to belittle the sacrifices American soldiers made but they arrived totally unarmed, and had to be placed under the supreme command of… a French Marshall, Ferdinand Foch. French-bashers usually prefer to ignore this detail… As we know, although they contributed to the final victory of course, they didn’t do it alone… Americans certainly didn’t save the butt of the French (and the British). France lost 1.35 million men, Great Britain 900,000, and the U.S. 120,000 (60,000 of them from disease)

• WW2. This is the great pride of Americans, to the point that many of them think they saved the world single-handedly… Just like for WW1, American didn’t come to the rescue of France (and Great Britain) out of love for them, out of love for freedom or democracy or whatever but because of Pearl Harbor (Dec 7th, 1941). Until then, Washington had regular diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany. Just a reminder: Germany declared war on America, not the other way round… Russia: over 21 million dead, France 800,000, Great Britain 390,000, and the U.S. about 300.000. Of course, nobody questions the gratitude that is owned to America. But that doesn’t imply eternal obedience to Washington, whatever may happen…

• Korean War (1950/1953) Not so much an American war that a war approved by the UN with the participation of about 20 allied countries. 930,000 soldiers took part, of which a third were Americans. Stalemate…

• The Vietnam War. The least bragged about war by American war mongers… Need not develop, right? About 2 millions Vietnamese killed. Talk about genocide…

• Ever heard about Operation Eagle Claw? Hmmm, don’t mention it to the American war mongers…

• And don’t forget the intervention on the island of Grenada (1983)… A great victory… That was just 2 days after 240 GIs had been killed in Lebanon and America decided to come home… And let’s just forget about Somalia…

• The Gulf War (1991), another great victory against a country twelve times less populous, already bled to death after an 8-year long war between Iraq and Iran… By the way, the French took part to this war. Do French-bashers know? 

• Afghanistan, right, what to say? A “country” stuck in the 13th century with no army at all… Is there any reason to be proud of whatever “victory” over there?

• And now the Iraq war, you know, the one which was a slam dunk, the “Mission Accomplished” after 6 weeks of fighting against a country that had next to no army left, with no navy, no aviation… “Bring ‘em on” he said… And some still think the war has been won or is on the verge to be won. How long will it take before they realize this war was lost the day America entered Iraq 7 years ago?

So all in all, with the exception of WW2, it’s hard to see America as a peace-loving country. And though America has now the greatest industrial/military complex in the world, its military record isn’t particularly impressive when one considers who its opponents were. Except for Japan and Germany, only third-world countries, unarmed and under-developed… So French-bashers, isn’t it time to cut it down a bit?

Note: The picture is “The War” (1894) by Henri Rousseau.