Since its founding as a new independent nation on the 4th of July 1776, the United States has not stopped fighting wars and fighting in battles almost non-stop in various regions of the world.
America gained its independence from Britain after a war with it that officially ended in 1783, then the nascent country expanded again to include regions in the east, north and south, and for that it fought wars with Britain, Spain and Mexico.
Many theorists of international politics imagined that America’s defeat in Vietnam would curb its military adventures abroad, but another motive prevailed among the American military, which was the need to search for and win a new war in order to prove the vitality of the American military power, which was greatly shaken and questioned by the world and many Americans because of defeat of Vietnam.
After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, it began waging wars in various regions of the world under the pretext of protecting American commercial interests and merchants. It fought in East Asia;
In China, Korea, Japan and the Philippines, passing through Libya and Algeria in the Mediterranean, and ending with most of the Caribbean islands, especially Cuba and Haiti, and then fought in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia, before officially entering World War I in 1917.
After the Second World War, which America officially entered in 1941, America's adventures and wars in all parts of the world did not stop. It participated in two major wars in the Asian East;
The Korean War (ended 1953) and the Vietnam War (ended 1975), and it did not achieve victory in both wars, despite its military and material strength that cannot be compared to other parties.
Many theorists of international politics imagined that America’s defeat in Vietnam would curb its military adventures abroad, but another motive prevailed among the American military, which was the need to search for and win a new war in order to prove the vitality of the American military power, which was greatly shaken and questioned by the world and many Americans because of defeat of Vietnam.
America entered into unified military adventures in many countries, including Grenada, Lebanon, Iran, Kosovo and Haiti, and then America fought wars in the Gulf region since the 1990s against Iraq, then the events of September 11 occurred, and 3,000 Americans were killed inside American lands. From the United States, however, the start of a new chapter in its wars differs from the previous ones, as the “American war on terror” was not defined by a time scale or geographical boundaries, and America remained involved in Afghanistan and Iraq for two decades, without achieving the desired victory.
A recent military study indicates that the openness of the American state's appetite for wars since its inception has led to the existence of only 17 years in the course of American history, during which the US military's involvement in military adventures abroad was absent.
This represents 7% of American history, meaning that America has been in foreign military conflicts for 93% of its history.
With all eyes focused in the past days on the shameful end of America's military presence in Afghanistan, the circumstance seems appropriate to ask a question about America's next war;
where?
And when?
The US defense establishment, with its complex and infiltrated network of research centers and major technological and military companies, does not waste much of its efforts without searching for a new war.
It seems that Pentagon officers and their civilian allies and military contractors are busy searching for another target after the end of America's "war on terror" in its first arena in Afghanistan, after spending more than two trillion dollars, in addition to a larger amount in the second arena in Iraq.
A quick look at the publications of the major research centers in Washington, shows that there is a good balance from which it can be directed towards a military conflict with Iran against the background of the continuous development of its nuclear program, or China, which represents a threat in the process of formation threatening the American military, technological and financial leadership in the Middle East. Both, and there is North Korea, whose nuclear program provides sufficient pretexts for the hawks of the Pentagon to justify aggression against it.
Although the US political system is currently more polarized than ever before, there is a fair amount of consensus on the need to confront China's policies between Democrats and Republicans. For years, the national security strategies of successive Republican and Democratic administrations have included evidence that the national security bureaucracy within Washington is moving regularly to provide an environment receptive to the idea of confronting the growing challenge of China. The only competitor capable of combining economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might, and challenging American capabilities.
The United States has spent $19 trillion on its military since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, which is about $16 trillion more than China's, roughly equal to what the rest of the world has spent combined over the same period.
America has hundreds of military bases all over the world, from Honduras to Australia, Japan, Iraq and Qatar to Germany and Italy, covering all continents.
According to David Fine, an anthropologist at American University who has written a book on American bases, the United States has about 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories.
This spread is unparalleled in the world, as Professor Finn has confirmed that other major military powers - such as China, Britain, France and Russia - together have only 31 foreign bases, spread across the world.
Washington keeps between 150,000 and 200,000 troops abroad, and this number changes according to the United States' involvement in foreign military conflicts, and the numbers of American forces vary from time to time depending on changes in their positions on different issues, and the confidential nature of the data on the deployment of American forces does not allow in some The regions have accurate figures for the total numbers of these forces, and in many cases they do not know the nature of their tasks
The Pentagon is conducting many military maneuvers that simulate fighting with China, especially with the belief of most analysts and researchers in Washington that China's invasion of Taiwan is only a matter of time, and this move, if it occurs, leaves the decision maker in the White House in front of fateful choices, as Washington has pledged to enter the war if China annexed Taiwan by armed force.
The coming days and years will prove whether America's appetite for fighting has been restrained after its failure in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or if we are approaching a war the likes of which humanity has never known.