Wars and Police Actions

The last war "to the death" that the U.S. was in was actually World War II and the one before that was "World War I". But to be realistic about it, The Korean War, The Viet Nam War, and the Iraq and Afghanistan War since 2001 aren't really wars at all and likely should have been called "Police actions". However, it is hard to get people to go fight and die in a police action because in things police do they don't usually die by the hundreds or thousands or 10s of thousands like our soldiers did in the Korean War and in the Viet Nam WAr (Viet Nam killed 50,000 of our troops and wounded at least 250,000) over 10 years or more of fighting there.

So, even though we call all these wars since around 1950 they are actually in reality "Police Actions" because it isn't us fighting to the death of our nation or theirs like World War II was. Nuclear weapons made that kind of war obsolete likely for as long as Nuclear weapons exist.

Then if we look at Libya and so far the world's reaction to what is going on in Syria it is something else entirely which I'm not even sure what to call unless it is sending in weapons to one side or the other or a no-fly zone.

So, this is why defining goals is ever more important before wasting more money on any war or police action because in actuality everything we have done since 1950 could be called a police action and shouldn't really be called a war at all. So, defining what we are doing and what we are and aren't going to do likely could save hundreds or thousands of American lives now and in the future.