A U.S. Special Forces soldier provides security overwatch in the early morning hours during an Afghan-led clearing operation in the Zharay district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, March 6, 2011. He is assigned to Special Operations Task Force South. The operation led to the recovery of 200 pounds of homemade explosives. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Daniel P. ShookTop 5 Reasons We Keep Fighting All These Wars -- Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy
The United States started out as thirteen small and vulnerable colonies clinging to the east coast of North America. Over the next century, those original thirteen states expanded all the way across the continent, subjugating or exterminating the native population and wresting Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California from Mexico. It fought a bitter civil war, acquired a modest set of overseas colonies, and came late to both world wars. But since becoming a great power around 1900, it has fought nearly a dozen genuine wars and engaged in countless military interventions.
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My Comment: From the Russian perspective (my nationality is Russian) we have always been brought up with the perception that the U.S. was always eager to engage in arm conflicts around the world. And while the Russian experience has been horrible in this regard (think of Afghanistan), the U.S. experience has been mixed .... with Vietnam being the worse case scenario and the liberation of Europe and Japan during the Second World War as being the best.
But if the U.S. was to experience horrific human and treasure losses because of war .... losses that were to be continuous .... this willingness to go to war will probably be muted and definitely toned down. In short ... we (in the West) fight these obscure wars because the cost is not that high. But if the cost was to become very high .... I doubt that we would then be willing to go to war, especially to conflicts that have no impact on our own strategic concerns.
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