“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” Mark Twain
In my short time here in this country store called life, I have lived thru 30 of the 102 wars that the U.S. has ever been involved in (click here. Note that I counted the number of wars starting from the Korean War 1950 – 1953 up to the present.)
By comparison, I got Buzzy, who died in 2009, beat by 5 as for the total number of wars that he lived thru. The only war that he lived thru before me was World War 2. (I’m still not doing those stupid Roman Numerals.)
Buzzy and I then “shared” i.e. lived thru 24 wars until his death in 2009 just before Operation Desert Shield commenced. Since Buzzy’s passing in 09, the U.S. has been involved in 6 additional wars which brings my total up to 30. Final summary then, the Kid 30, Buzzy 25. And I ain’t done yet.
While I am hoping not to add to my list of wars lived thru and thereby further surpass Buzzy’s total, I would just as soon leave my number at 30 and call it a day.
Little pop quiz for you here – of those 102 wars that the U.S. has been involved in, how many are still ongoing, and can you name them? (Click here and the answer of 3 may surprise you as it did me.) It also leads me to wonder, why are we still involved in those 3?
Riding down the road to the Store yesterday morning and listening to the news on the radio, I grew tired of hearing all the war talk. So, I popped in a mixed tape/CD that my buddy Mike Whitson gave me some time ago. When the music kicked in, I had to smile as this tune from Phil Ochs began to play:
Thank you, Mike, and thank you musical muse for sending this my way at that very moment.