Judge Gray: Taking American Military Interventions More Seriously

One of the first things that was done when our country was founded in 1787 was to establish the United States Department of War. This agency lasted until 1947, when it was re-organized and re-named the United States Department of Defense. But given our history since that time, the title of United States Department of Offense would have been more appropriate.

Since 1947, the United States has intervened militarily on more than 40 separate occasions in foreign countries. In addition to the more wellknown actions like in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, that list also includes Guatemala, Iran, Cuba, Indonesia, Chile, El Salvador, Grenada, Colombia, Haiti and Somalia. Some of those interventions have produced good and lasting results, but many have produced lasting disasters.

Some of those disasters are out in the open. For example, many people in Iran still hate our government for having deposed its legitimately-elected government in 1953 and imposed the Shah upon them. Similarly, the situations in Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan in many ways speak for themselves. But other disastrous results are far less visible.

For example, although a large number of people around the world still love America and Americans, they do not like or trust our government because of its interventionist policies. So in many ways we would probably be a lot safer today had we never intervened in many of those places, because those actions simply made people mad at us.