Which Wars?
Kevin Drum
asks:
Which wars did you support? Any of them? None of them? Some of them?
This does provide an interesting shorthand to evaluating foreign policy inclinations. Ross Douthat gives his answers
here. Anyways, let's see where I come out:
As a Canadian, I favour our involvement in the War of 1812, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Gulf War and Afghanistan.
I oppose our involvement in the Boer War and the Kosovo Campaign.
If I were an American, I'd favour American involvement in WWII, the Korean War, the Gulf War and Afghanistan.
I'd oppose fighting the American Revolution, the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Mexican and Indian Wars, WWI, Kosovo, the Vietnam War and Iraq*.
If I were English, I'd join in the Pilgrimmage of Grace, the Cavalier side to the English Civil War, the Jacobite side to the war in Ireland in 1690 and the Jacobite Risings of '15 and '45. I'd naturally support the involvement in the Napoleonic Wars, WWI, WWII, and the Korean War.
I would not have fought the War of the Spanish Succession, the Irish Rebellion, the Opium Wars, the Crimean War, the Boer War or the Mau-Mau Uprising.
*I favoured involvement in the Iraq war when it began, and for some time after. I know recognize this to have been a misjudgement, due to being overly optimistic about the possibility of liberalizing Iraqi society, unwary of the risk of insurrection and unskeptical of the ability of the American administration to prosecute the war competantly. I might have favoured entering the Vietnam War if not for the appropriate skepticism one ought to bring to the likelihood of competant prosecution of the war (which was, of course, bourne out in history).
