Thousands of people and billions of dollars have been lost.. These wars have been fought by America since independence

Since declaring its independence on July 4, 1776, the United States of America has fought many wars in various countries of the world.

These wars have cost the United States thousands of people and billions of dollars. It was only natural for the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, to declare that "conventional wars have drained America and its time is over."

246 years..military adventures

- Throughout American history (246 years), the US military's involvement in military adventures abroad has been absent for only 17 years.

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.

After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, America began to fight wars in various regions of the world under the pretext of protecting American commercial interests and merchants.

- America 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. Then it fought in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Grenada, Lebanon, Iran and Kosovo.

World War I (1914-1918)

A fierce war that began in Europe and ended globally. It was one of the fiercest conflicts in history. It lasted more than 4 years, and its human losses amounted to about 9 million dead. It paved the way for major political changes, and was behind revolutions in many countries.

June 28, 1914: Serbian student Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife while they were visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

July 28, 1914: Austria declared war on Serbia, so the mechanism of European alliances began to interact, as Russia supported Serbia and declared war on Austria, then Germany declared war on Russia.

At the beginning of the war, two groups participated in the war: the Allied Forces (the Triple Entente), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Third Republic, the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers, namely the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and the alliances expanded with the expansion of the war.

1916: The Germans resorted to attempting to sink any merchant ship to starve Britain and force it to surrender. He was among the ships that sank a number of American ships.

April 1917: The sinking of ships prompted the United States to enter the war on the side of the Entente countries, making the war global.

The forces of the "Central Powers" collapsed quickly and Bulgaria was the first to sign the armistice on September 29, 1918 in Thessaloniki, and the collapses followed and the signing of surrender agreements, for Germany to sign the Armistice of Compieg with the Allies inside a railway vehicle on November 11, 1918.

World War II (1939-1945)

Hitler's occupation of Austria in March 1938, Czechoslovakia the following year, and Poland in September 1939, then Italy's threat to invade Albania were direct reasons for Britain and France to declare war on the Axis Powers.

War broke out in Europe and the German army was ahead on all European fronts, as it occupied most countries and entered Paris, but its attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 made it leave its back exposed to the British.

The United States of America did not enter the war at first, but it imposed an oil embargo on Japan, and prevented the export of iron to it.

December 7, 1941: Japan attacked the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the United States entered the war against the Axis Powers.

The war witnessed many battles that formed key stations in it, and had an impact on its course and results, as in the battles of Stalingrad, Midau, El Alamein, the Normandy landing, and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Before the end of 1942, the Americans defeated the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway, and the German commander Rommel was defeated in El Alamein, Egypt, and the German forces were defeated in Stalingrad, in the Soviet Union.

The defeat of the Axis Powers began to loom. The Allies entered Germany in December 1944. The Italian revolutionaries executed Mussolini and hung him by his feet from a lamppost in Milan. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and Germany surrendered.

Despite the surrender of Germany, the Japanese continued to resist, and the war did not stop definitively until after the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic bombs, which represented the first use of atomic bombs in history.

Subsequently, Japan signed the document of unconditional surrender on September 2, 1945, and three days later the American flag was raised over Tokyo.

The Second World War ended after 6 years of fierce fighting, in which humanity lost about 17 million soldiers and twice as many civilians.

One of its results was the victory of the Allied Powers over the Axis Powers, but the United States' use of the atomic bomb in the war to force Japan to surrender opened the door to a frantic race to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Korean War (1950-1953)

As soon as World War II ended in 1945, Russia occupied the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, establishing a communist regime, while the United States controlled the southern part, and the 38th parallel separates the two Korean parts.

June 1950: The United States formed a coalition of 16 countries and obtained a Security Council resolution for military intervention in Korea.

July 27, 1953: A ceasefire agreement is reached.

The Korean War lasted 3 years, claimed nearly 4 million lives, and represented the height of the Cold War between the communist and capitalist camps, with neither victor nor loser.

Vietnam War (1955-1975)

- One of the most important wars of the 20th century during the Cold War, it raged between the United States of America and the Vietnamese communists, leaving millions dead, wounded and refugees, and Washington inflicted heavy human, military and economic losses.

Also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam it is called the War of Resistance against America.

The conflict took place in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from November 1, 1955, until the fall of the capital, Saigon, on April 30, 1975.

The North Vietnamese Army received support from the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies, while the South Vietnamese Army received support from America, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies.

1962: The number of American soldiers in South Vietnam reached 11,000, and an American command was established in Saigon (the former capital of the Republic of South Vietnam) in January 1962.

- The US military presence in Vietnam continued to increase, reaching at the end of 1965 about 200,000 soldiers, then in the summer of 1968 it reached 550,000.

March 31, 1968: President Johnson announces an end to the US bombing of North Vietnam.

May 1968: Negotiations begin between the Vietnamese and the Americans in Paris.

January 1969: US President Richard Nixon announced that 25,000 American soldiers would leave Vietnam in August 1969, and that another 65,000 would be subject to the same decision at the end of that year.

September 1969: The Paris negotiations failed due to the intransigence of the Vietnamese, who urgently demanded the necessity of a complete American withdrawal, and set it as a prerequisite for a cease-fire.

January 23, 1973: The announcement of reaching a ceasefire agreement, which entered into force on the 28th of the same month, and the agreement includes:

March 1973: The last American soldier left Vietnam.

The Vietnamese lost during the eight years of the war, 3 million dead, 3 million wounded, and nearly 12 million refugees. As for the Americans, their losses were estimated at 57 thousand dead, 153 thousand wounded, 303 wounded, and 587 civilian and military captives released.

The Second Gulf War..Desert Storm (1990-1991)

August 2, 1990: Iraq, led by President Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait after Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing its own oil.

The United States hastened to form a coalition of 34 countries after the Security Council authorized the liberation of Kuwait.

January 17, 1991: The operation to liberate Kuwait, which Washington called "Desert Storm" and "Desert Shield", began.

February 27, 1991: US President George HW Bush announced the liberation of Kuwait after 40 days of war.

294 American soldiers were killed and 467 wounded, and the cost of the war was estimated at $61 billion.

Somalia War (1991-1994)

January 26, 1991: The overthrow of the communist regime of Mohamed Siad Barre (October 21, 1969-January 26, 1991), and the outbreak of a civil war in Somalia.

December 3, 1992: The UN Security Council unanimously approved Resolution No. 794, which provided for the establishment of a peacekeeping force led by the UNITAF peacekeeping force led by the United States of America.

Early 1993: US President George HW Bush (January 20, 1989 - January 20, 1993) agreed to send American soldiers to Somalia on the basis that it was a short-term humanitarian mission.

His successor Bill Clinton was persuaded (20 January 1993 - 20 January 2001) to extend the mission of his forces until the establishment of civilian rule in Somalia on the basis that US forces are the backbone of the United Nations forces.

October 3, 1993: Armed clashes took place in the capital, Mogadishu, between local fighters and peacekeeping forces, resulting in losses in peacekeeping forces estimated at 24 Pakistanis and 19 Americans, along with a thousand Somali forces.

Two American Black Hawk helicopters crashed, their crews chased into the streets.

March 24, 1994: US forces withdrew completely from Somalia after Washington's death toll reached 31.

- End of March 2017: The Pentagon approved a plan to give powers to the US military forces to launch a campaign against Al-Shabab, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

October 14, 2017: Washington intensified its air raids in Somalia after the killing of about 500 citizens in an attack that shook the capital Mogadishu.

- US forces launched 52 raids on Somalia in 2020, and 63 in 2019, all against Al-Shabab, and a small number against ISIS in Somalia.

January 2021: More than 700 American soldiers are withdrawn to military bases in Kenya and Djibouti, where drone strikes are launched against Al-Shabaab, and only about 100 soldiers remain in Somalia to coordinate the information of reconnaissance planes.

US invasion of Iraq (2003-2011)

The American invasion of Iraq - which turned into an occupation of Mesopotamia between March 20, 2003 and December 18, 2011 - was a pivotal event in the Middle East, the pretext of which was Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, which led to the overthrow of the regime of President Saddam Hussein and human losses. It was estimated at one million dead, injured, and millions homeless.

March 20, 2003: The US invasion of Iraq begins with explosions in Baghdad and an air raid that attempted to target Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders.

- April 9, 2003: US forces announce the extension of their control over most of Baghdad, television screens broadcast scenes of the toppling of the statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the Sheraton Hotel yard with the help of an American tank carrier, and an American soldier placed his country's flag on the statue's face.

May 1, 2003: The United States announces the end of major combat operations.

May 12, 2003: US diplomat Paul Bremer is appointed as civilian governor of Iraq.

December 13, 2003: Saddam Hussein is arrested by the US Army.

December 31, 2003: Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging.

January 10, 2007: George Bush announces the deployment of 20,000 additional troops to Baghdad to contain sectarian fighting.

August 31, 2010: US President Barack Obama announces the end of US combat missions in Iraq.

- December 18, 2011: The US military announces that it has officially ended the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq by crossing the last convoy of its soldiers into Kuwait on the same day, ending nearly 9 years of its occupation of Iraq.

December 5, 2016: US Defense Secretary-designate Robert Gates acknowledges that the United States does not appear to be winning the war in Iraq.

Afghanistan War (2001-2021)

September 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda launched attacks on the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan in New York and the headquarters of the US Department of Defense known as the Pentagon in Washington, leaving 3,000 people dead.

September 12, 2001: The Allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) resort to activating the common defense clause for the first time in the history of the Western alliance to fight the war in Afghanistan.

- US President George W. Bush accused the al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden of carrying out the attacks, and declared a massive war on terrorism.

October 7, 2001: Bush launches Operation Enduring Freedom, and the US military begins bombing Afghanistan in cooperation with the United Kingdom.

About 28,000 American soldiers participated in the operation, as well as thousands of soldiers from other countries, most notably Britain. The United Nations also established the International Assistance Force (ISAF), whose number in 2009 reached 64,000 soldiers from 42 countries.

November 2001: NATO forces entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, under the American cover of intense bombing, and in the meantime, the Taliban forces withdrew to the southern regions of the country.

- December 2001: The Taliban finally surrendered after the US forces opened a barrage of bombardments on the caves in which the movement's militants hid in the southern regions, thinking that bin Laden was hiding there.

- December 22, 2001: Formation of an interim Afghan government headed by Hamid Karzai after the surrender of the Taliban, and the deployment of international forces affiliated with NATO in the country.

Washington was preoccupied with Afghanistan after its invasion of Iraq in 2003, for the Taliban to gradually return to their strongholds in the south of the country. Bush decided to send military reinforcements in 2008 to combat the movement.

- After the end of the term of Bush Jr., he was succeeded by Barack Obama, who built a large part of his popularity during his presidential campaign based on promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- Obama did not fulfill his promise, and also sent more military reinforcements for the American forces to Afghan territory.

2011: The total number of American soldiers in Afghanistan reached about 100,000, in addition to half of that number from foreign forces of other nationalities.

- May 2, 2011: American intelligence agents were able to locate bin Laden, and he was killed in a secret operation at dawn in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

June 22, 2011: Obama announces the withdrawal of 33,000 troops by June 2012, and the first batch has already left in July 2011.

NATO has officially ended its combat missions in Afghanistan, leaving 12,500 foreign soldiers, including 9,800 Americans, to train Afghan forces and carry out counter-terrorism operations.

2015: Changing the mission, which was known as the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF), and replaced it with the current training operation "Resolute Support". As of last April, it consisted of about 10,000 soldiers from 36 countries.

- US President Donald Trump sent reinforcements with thousands of soldiers to demolish a network of tunnels and caves for ISIS in the east of the country, which resulted in the killing of about 100 ISIS elements.

- The international military coalition has incurred more than 3,500 deaths since 2001, including about 2,400 Americans, according to US congressional data, and more than 20,000 US soldiers have been wounded.

February 29, 2020: Washington signed a historic agreement with the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The agreement stipulated the withdrawal of all foreign forces by May 1, 2021, in exchange for security guarantees, and the start of unprecedented direct negotiations between the movement and the Kabul government.

- With the start of the withdrawal of foreign forces on the scheduled date of May 1, 2021, violence escalated in the country, as fierce battles broke out between the Taliban and government forces in the southern Helmand region, and the movement took control of the Afghan provinces one after another in record time.

July 6, 2021: The US Central Command announced that its estimates indicate the completion of more than 90% of the withdrawal process from Afghanistan.

August 15, 2021: The capital, Kabul, fell to the Taliban, and President Ashraf Ghani left the country to settle in the Emirates.

August 26, 2021: ISIS carried out a suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport, killing 175 people, including 13 American soldiers and at least 28 Taliban militants.

Dawn of August 31, 2021: The US Department of Defense announced that its forces had completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

During the years of the war in Afghanistan, 4 American presidents succeeded in the White House, starting with the war announcer, George Bush Jr., through Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and finally Joe Biden.

The war cost the United States of America about 822 billion dollars on military purposes only, according to official statistics of the US Department of Defense.

According to a study conducted by Brown University in 2019, which examined the costs of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United States spent nearly $978 billion, and this study includes the money allocated for the fiscal year 2020.

Despite the withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan, Washington and NATO pledged to provide 4 billion dollars annually until 2024, in order to fund Afghan forces.

So far, NATO has supplied Afghanistan with supplies and equipment equivalent to $72 million.

Official data shows that the United States has spent $143.27 billion on reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan since 2002.

More than half of this amount ($88.32 billion) was spent on building Afghan security forces, including the Afghan National Army and police forces, and nearly $36 billion was allocated to governance and development, while small amounts were allocated to counter-narcotics efforts and humanitarian aid.

The Afghan war lasted 20 years, the longest war in American history, after the Iraq War (18 years), the Vietnam War (14 years), World War II (5 years), and the Korean War (4 years).

From October 2001 to April 2021, the total death toll is estimated at 241,000.

The death toll of the United States' allies participating in that war was 1,444, and of the aid workers, 549 were killed, in addition to 6 civilian workers of the Department of Defense.

- The losses of the Afghan army and police forces are estimated at 64,100 people, since the start of the war in October 2001, in addition to more than 71,000 Afghan civilians killed.

ـ مصرع 3500 جندي من قوات التحالف الدولي، من بينهم 2300 جندي أميركي، وإصابة أكثر من 206 آلاف جندي أميركي في اشتباكات.