Wwii

I thought this thread was about the Nintendo game system

...back to the discussion...

 

Yes, really.

http://www.smallwars.quantico.usmc.mil/sw_history.asp

EXCERPT

The Marine Corps' role in Small Wars has a long and complex history. During the early years of the twentieth century, the Corps was widely viewed as the nation's overseas police and initial response force. Moreover, the actual execution of these de facto roles were a natural adjunct of the Corps' officially directed mission of sea-based power projection, in turn buttressed by its fundamental expeditionary operational character; i.e., the availability for "sudden and immediate call."

As a result of this "natural fit" and the experience of a series of guerilla wars and military interventions loosely known as the "Banana Wars," the Marine Corps began to systematically analyze the character and requirements of operations short of war proper, or "Small Wars" in familiar terminology.

The results of these efforts were encapsulated in The Small Wars Manual (SWM), published in final form in 1940 and a true classic of military science that remains refreshingly relevant today as the foundation of much current thinking and doctrine. The SWM defined the core of such operations with unusual prescience: "…small wars are operations undertaken under executive authority, wherein military force is combined with diplomatic pressure in the internal or external affairs of another state whose government is unstable, inadequate, or unsatisfactory for the preservation of life and of such interests as are determined by the foreign policy of our Nation."

 

Which is exactly what I said - we should use military force only when our interests are at stake.

 

That's not exactly all you said.

You also wrote: "Actually, staying out of foreign conflicts unless our interests were attacked is the legacy of these United States until the post-World War II era."

Our interests weren't exactly being "attacked" in a way that invited our military intervention in the "banana wars".

 

[Comment related to current events deleted by Ken H.]

I am not sure that current events belong in a history forum.

 

Correct. My reference to current events has been deleted.