From Bowser on the Community Board:

This is going to go over like a fart in church, but what the hell. It's been percolating in my mind for a long time and I may as well lay the bones of this idea out there.

"If your kids speak English, thank a powerful, prepared Armed Forces." "If you enjoy freedom, thank a serviceman or woman." Two slogans representative of thousands of inspirational and motivational sound bites. I'm going to suggest that American freedom and liberty hasn't been seriously threatened in almost 200 years and threatened at all in 150.

Parts of the American Empire have been threatened and the American pride has been grievously damaged but the "homeland" has been insulated from any credible attack except from within. I'm not going to count the personal tragedies in this post, any more that the US counts the personal tragedies in it's battles, such as attacks on Fallujah. Let it be said that that the personal suffering is beyond comprehension and supremely sad. I am not discounting the losses on that level. I'm talking about the larger scale.

Working back, the one-shot WTC attack did no meaningful damage to the United States except to our ego, our image of ourselves. Our freedoms were never in danger except from the response to that attack. We've gotten along just fine without those buildings on a grand, national scale.

Kuwait. No threat to any American freedom. Strictly for oil.

Vietnam. No threat to any American freedom. Strictly for the political pride of 3 American Presidents.

Korea. A threat to American economic interests, no American shore would be stormed, no American freedom threatened.

WWII. Japan was a threat to the European colonial empire and American economic interests. Pearl Harbor was one-shot, though the invasion of the Phillipines was a direct attack on the US empire. The idea of "unconditional surrender" was a new one, and turned what might have been a negotiated settlement with reparations into an all-out, to-the-death war. The American homeland, the American Constitution and American freedoms were not threatened except from within.

Germany was busy committing suicide, and didn't seriously threaten US shores, and wasn't going to threaten US shores. Hitler's ego doomed Germany to destruction.

WWI. Again, that war did not affect any American freedom. Our pride was hurt.

Spanish-American War. Pride, empire. Certainly not territorial US, freedoms, Constitution.

I realize this is counter to the conventional wisdom, runs against the beliefs instilled in every American from day one of their lives and accepted without question. I'm not saying the US shouldn't have gone to war, I'm saying that the essential freedoms of the US weren't threatened. The reason for all those wars wasn't freedom, it was money. All that has threatened our Constitutional rights has been the politicians in the US, not any foreign power.

Arf

It's a hallowed belief of many (remember, I know a lot of libertarians) that the only time Americans should prepare for war is when the enemy is at our borders. That the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, and others would just fade out of their own accord if we left them alone, or just run their empires and leave us alone.

We could sit out wars 150 years ago, protected by our oceans, and a good case can be made that some of the wars we did get into would have done just fine without us. But in the 20th century, by WWII, that didn't stand up any more. It's not a matter of having this belief "instilled" in us. It's simple reason, following any of dozens of alternatives to obvious conclusions. I can run one or two if you want. "Fortress America" is an appealing fantasy for those who are very tired of watering liberty's tree, but it's still a fantasy. If 9/11 taught us anything, it's that our borders aren't going to stop people who want to kill us in large numbers.