If a “war year” is one during which the U.S. was involved in war part or all of the year, and if we define a “peace year” as one during which the U.S. was not involved in war, then the record shows there were 224 war years (92.5 percent) and only 18 peace years (7.5 percent).
America has had 45 presidents. If we define a “war president” as one whose entire term included at least one war year, and if we define a “peace president” as one whose entire term included only peace years, then the record shows there were 45 war presidents and no peace presidents.
In addition to the aforementioned 79 wars, the U.S. is involved in many “secret wars.” In 2017, U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets, deployed to 149 countries around the world. That’s about 75 percent of the nations on the planet and represents a jump from the 138 countries that saw such deployments in 2016 under the Obama administration. It’s also a jump of nearly 150 percent from the last days of George W. Bush’s White House.
Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.
There are between 1,077 and 1,180 U.S. military bases dotting the globe. In each of 80 different countries, there are at least one or more bases.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest employer in the world. It has 3.2 million employees, including 1.6 million active-duty military personnel, of which 250,000 staff foreign U.S. military bases. There are 801,000 in the Coast Guard and Reserves and 800,000 civilian employees. DOD defense contractors include over 50,000 corporations. The total employment is just under 2,000,000. DOD has contractors in 190 of the 200 nations.
In 2016, the U.S. spent $1.036 trillion on defense, which is 3.66 times more than the combined total of $0.2829 trillion for China ($0.2157) and Russia ($0.0672).
In 2016, the U.S. spent 1.6 times more than the rest of the world combined ($0.650 trillion).
As of 2017, the U.S. has an inventory of 6,800 nuclear warheads; of these, 2,800 are retired and awaiting dismantlement and 4,018 are part of the U.S. stockpile. Of the stockpiled warheads, the U.S. stated in its April 2017 New Start declaration that 1,411 are deployed on 673 ICBMs, SLBMs and strategic bombers. Currently (2018), Trump wants to spend $1.2 trillion on upgrading the nuclear arsenal.
Since the end of World War II, U.S. military forces were directly responsible for approximately 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths, while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.
There also are proxy wars for which the United States is responsible. In these wars, there were between 9 million and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan. The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 million and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
There is a long-overdue transformation which could enable all to thrive and enjoy the benefits of a much more humane society. Capitalism is an abomination and a crime against humanity. It ought to have been done away with ages ago.
No matter what the real or alleged atrocities of the “bad” side, however, wars are quarrels over control of territory and resources between different sections of the capitalist class—business rivalry by other means. The working class can have no interest in such matters. The result of a “just” war is the same as a “bad” war—the poor do the dying and the rich harvest the profits. The only “worthwhile” war is the class war—the fight against war.
Wars are inevitable under capitalism because of the economic competition between states that is built-in to it.
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