Every American War

The war against the Islamic State is only the latest: Here is a list of U.S. military operations from World War I until today.

“If necessary, the United States is prepared to extend the role of military advisers sent to Iraq.”* This statement, made by Gen. Martin Dempsey during his testimony to the U.S. Senate, seemed to announce a possible involvement of U.S. troops in the war against the Islamic State. The White House immediately denied a change in strategy. President Obama does not want to send any more soldiers than the 1,000 already present on Iraqi soil.

In reality, the military is certain that the war against the Islamic State group will only be won if ground forces enter Syria and Iraq. Even the experts are certain of this. Therefore, it is probable that in the next few months, Obama will be faced with making a difficult choice. Even though he did not want this intervention, he will have to decide how to fight the Islamic State group. It is his first war. However, it is only the latest of America’s wars; in the last 100 years, U.S. soldiers have been involved in 15 conflicts. This is the long list of America’s wars in the last century.

WWI, 1917-1918

After the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, after a year of tension with Germany as a result of submarine warfare that also hit U.S. ships, and after the Zimmermann telegram – Berlin’s proposal for Mexico to become anti-American and an ally – on April 6, 1917, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany’s Wilhelm II. More than 2 million men were enlisted in the army. U.S. intervention determined the fate of the war in favor of the Allies.

Russian Civil War, 1917-1922

The U.S. sent a small force – around 5,000 men – as part of an international campaign by the Allied countries to fight against the Bolsheviks alongside the White army in the Russian Civil War. The formal objective of the coalition was to help the Czechoslovak Legion, a military formation that remained involved in Russian matters after the October Revolution and Russia’s exit from WWI. In reality, the true objective of the expedition was to stop Bolshevism from spreading all over Russia. In the end, the Red Army won, and foreign troops had to retreat.

Dec. 7, 1941: The Japanese air force attacked Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was destroyed. The Giant – how America was defined by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto – was awoken. The U.S. responded by entering the war against the Axis powers. The Americans fought in Asia, Europe and Africa. In total, 16 million citizens enlisted in the armed forces during the conflict, and 400,000 of them died. At the end of WWII, the U.S. took the United Kingdom’s place as the world’s superpower.

Korean War, 1950-1953

Harry Truman was president during this war. When Pyongyang and China’s troops invaded the southern zone of the Korean Peninsula, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s successor, under the United Nations mandate, decided to respond. It was the first armed conflict of the Cold War. Truman gave the order to intervene without asking for authorization from Congress. It was not necessary, he said because the U.N. resolution gave him the legitimacy to begin the military campaign without needing the green light from Capitol Hill. He was the first person to bypass Congress. Many other presidents would follow in this “tradition.” During the Korean War, around 300,000 U.S. soldiers were deployed. The conflict ended with an armistice.

Vietnam War, 1953-1975

The first war that the U.S. would lose began at the beginning of the 1950s. Hundreds of U.S. military advisors were sent to Indochina to help the French military, which was involved in a fight against the Communist guerrilla group in Ho Chi Minh. U.S. involvement escalated in the 1960s. First, John F. Kennedy multiplied the number of U.S. military advisers in Vietnam, bringing the figure from a few hundred to 16,000 in only a few months. Then his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, transformed the military involvement into a true and proper war. Thanks to the Gulf of Tonkin incident – the attack on a U.S. military ship, which according to several historians and journalists, was devised by the U.S administration – Johnson obtained full authority from Congress for the war in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent to Vietnam; thousands of them returned in body bags. In the end, it was Richard Nixon who closed the Vietnam War chapter, after an escalation of carpet bombings on the cities and countryside in the North and – secretly – in Cambodia and Laos, actions that were severely criticized. A total of 58,220 American soldiers lost their lives.

Invasion of Grenada, 1983

Out of fear that a Marxist regime would support the Cubans in the area, Ronald Reagan decided to invade Grenada. American troops were sent to re-establish constitutional order after a military coup eliminated the government that was elected in 1979 on the Caribbean island. Around 8,000 soldiers were deployed. It was the first large military operation after the Vietnam War.

Invasion of Panama, 1990

George W. H. Bush gave the order to invade Panama. In Dec. 1989, 24,000 U.S. soldiers disembarked on the small but extremely important Central American state to fight against dictator Manuel Noriega, who was once a friend of the United States.

The First Gulf War, 1990-1991

Following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, Washington presented an ultimatum to the Iraqi dictator. A multinational force, consisting of 500,000 soldiers, was deployed to Saudi Arabia to re-establish the legitimate government in the smaller Gulf countries. On Jan. 16, 1991, the bombings on Baghdad, other Iraqi cities, and on Saddam’s army trenches in Kuwait began. One month later, the Iraqis retreated from the invaded country.

Operation ‘Restore Hope,’ Somalia, 1992-1994

It was supposed to be a humanitarian operation, but it became another U.S. war. Bill Clinton inherited it from Bush, Sr. U.S. soldiers were involved in the Battle of Mogadishu, causing numerous deaths. The first military defeat since Vietnam was retold in the movie “Black Hawk Down.” It was that episode that convinced Clinton to leave the African country to its own fate.

Bosnia, 1994

Bill Clinton ordered air raids against the Serbians in Bosnia to force them to sit at the negotiation table and then, following the Dayton Accords, he deployed a peace army to the Balkans.

Kosovo, 1999

The U.S. participated in a NATO mission to force the Serbian president, Milosevic, to leave Kosovo. Air raids were initiated to hit both the Albanian majority region and Serbian territory. U.S. soldiers entered Kosovo after the Serbians retreated.

Afghanistan, 2001

The invasion of Afghanistan was decided by George W. Bush following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The objective was to defeat the Taliban and destroy al-Qaida, which had its main base in the country. The war has been going on ever since. Barack Obama has predicted the withdrawal of the majority of U.S. soldiers by the end of 2014, but the job isn’t done. The Taliban are still a potential danger. Until now, the war has cost the lives of more than 2,000 Americans.

Iraq, 2003-2011

It was George W. Bush who decided to invade Iraq with the objective of overthrowing the Saddam Hussein regime. The operation was decided as part of the “war on terror.” The Iraqi dictator was accused of supporting international terrorism and possessing weapons of mass destruction. This latter accusation was proven to be false. Around 150,000 U.S. soldiers were used in the invasion, all of whom would remain in Iraq until Barack Obama decided to withdraw them in 2011. There have been more than 4,000 U.S. deaths.

Libya, 2011

The U.S. intervened against Muammar Gadhafi following the start of the Civil War in Libya. The U.S. was part of an international coalition whose objective was to overthrow the colonel’s regime. The operation was based on the use of the U.S. Air Force, with air raids conducted alongside the other countries that were part of the international coalition. Gadhafi was defeated and forced to cede power. He was then hunted down by the rebels, and was subsequently captured and killed.

* Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.