This country has a LONG history of military actions throughout the world. The link has a comprehensive list of pretty much every conflict where we've been involved. Lots of little skirmishes are classified as "war".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
The big wars in our history seem to all have an well remembered event/scenario that switched public opinion from opposed/neutral to full warhawk mode.
Of course each conflict has all sorts of details and specifics that led up to the fighting but for the most part we have a definite starting points.
I haven't seen any opinion polls but I am guessing the country leans against jumping into another conflict OR just don't care / they've got more important things to worry about.
The Hamas/Israel conflict seems to have shifted US opinion toward war-hawk but there doesn't seem to a large majority banging war drums. 10/7/23 (or is it 7/10/23?) will be Israel's kickoff event, I don't think this is going to be ours.
Big question is: What would it take to get this country to shift into full scale war mode? Would sinking a destroyer in the Red Sea be all that it takes or would it need to be a larger scale Pearl Harbor/9/11 type event?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
The big wars in our history seem to all have an well remembered event/scenario that switched public opinion from opposed/neutral to full warhawk mode.
Of course each conflict has all sorts of details and specifics that led up to the fighting but for the most part we have a definite starting points.
Quote:
Revolutionary War
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution.
Spanish American War
On February 15, 1898, a mysterious explosion destroyed the American battleship Maine in Havana Harbor and helped propel the United States into a war with Spain. The USS Maine was in Cuba, officially, on a mission of friendly courtesy and, incidentally, to protect American lives and property in the event that Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain might escalate into full-blown warfare. "Yet," writes author Tom Miller, "the visit was neither spontaneous nor altruistic; the United States had been eyeing Cuba for almost a century."
WW1
On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British-owned luxury steamship Lusitania, killing 1,195 people including 128 Americans, according to the Library of Congress. The disaster immediately strained relations between Germany and the neutral United States, fueled anti-German sentiment and set off a chain of events that eventually led to the United States entering WW1.
WW2
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
Vietnam War
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression" by the communist government of North Vietnam. It was passed on August 7, 1964, by the U.S. Congress after an alleged attack on two U.S. naval destroyers stationed off the coast of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effectively launched America's full-scale involvement in the Vietnam War.
WOT
On September 11, 2001a clear, sunny, late summer dayal Qaeda terrorists aboard three hijacked passenger planes carried out coordinated suicide attacks against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board the planes and nearly 3,000 people on the ground. A fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board, after
passengers and crew attempted to wrest control from the hijackers.
I haven't seen any opinion polls but I am guessing the country leans against jumping into another conflict OR just don't care / they've got more important things to worry about.
The Hamas/Israel conflict seems to have shifted US opinion toward war-hawk but there doesn't seem to a large majority banging war drums. 10/7/23 (or is it 7/10/23?) will be Israel's kickoff event, I don't think this is going to be ours.
Big question is: What would it take to get this country to shift into full scale war mode? Would sinking a destroyer in the Red Sea be all that it takes or would it need to be a larger scale Pearl Harbor/9/11 type event?
