When was the last time the French won a war?
It's not just a joke. As any serious student of history is apt to find out once he/she decides to research it for him/herself, the last time the French won a non-civil war, without the help of an even greater number of allies, was some time before they were conquered by the Romans, if then. For a very entertaining analysis of the facts, all one needs do is go to google (yahoo doesn't allow this), type in "french military victories" and click the 'I Feel Lucky' button, which will lead you to the page I've listed below. In my own personal opinion, the reason France as a country hasn't been swollowed up time and time again like what happened from the Romans, is that France is the epitome of agricultural wealth, and that instead of spending all their time fighting, they spent most of their time garnering mass amounts of food and tremendous varieties of foods, and were mostly able to BUY their way out of warfare by bribing the enemy with some form of tribute, until that enemy wound up losing to, and buffering France from, some other enemy. So, even though it is true that France has failed to win any wars on its own since at least before their fall to the Roman Empire, France is NOT by any means a joke.
When was the last time Iran started a War or invaded another Country?
Here is some interesting reading. Iran has had nuclear power for years. They could have enriched uranium to weapons grade long ago. Iran is not threatening Israel. It is the other way around. People keep repeating the English translation of Ahmadinejad saying he would wipe Israel out. But no country would attempt to do that and that is not what he was saying.
Have there been times when a country avoided war at the last minute?
The US and the Soviet Union were at the brink of war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Cuban Missile Crisis - Wikipedia The US put a blockade around Cuba that could have been interpreted as an act of war. Cuban Missile Crisis - Wikipedia . It was called a quarantine at the time.Khrushchev stated, "if you weigh the present situation with a cool head without giving way to passion, you will understand that the Soviet Union cannot afford not to decline the despotic demands of the USA" and that the Soviet Union views the blockade as "an act of aggression" and their ships will be instructed to ignore itUltimately cooler heads prevailed and the crisis ended:On October 27, after much deliberation between the Soviet Union and Kennedy's cabinet, Kennedy secretly agreed to remove all missiles set in southern Italy and in Turkey, the latter on the border of the Soviet Union, in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles in Cuba. There is some dispute as to whether removing the missiles from Italy was part of the secret agreement. Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that it was, and when the crisis had ended McNamara gave the order to dismantle the missiles in both Italy and Turkey. [ from the wikipedia article cited above]Not exactly the last minute, but it was a real crisis. I was 11 years old and quite scared.
When was the last time we had a war?
There was probably not a second in human history since we left the trees and started walking upright when there was NO war. We currently have 5 ongoing bigger conflicts, 4 of which take place in the Middle east (Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen) and one in Latin America (the war with Mexican cartels lasts from 2006). And by big I mean 10, 15 or even 30 thousand dead just this year for each one.You can add around 40 or 50 smaller wars all around the globe to that. Yup, multiple people are dying in armed conflicts right this second. Just because this does not happen in so called “civilised” countries, it does not mean they do not exist.
Is there a country that has never been in a war?
It might stretch the definition a tiny tad but I’d go for Iceland.Iceland was established as an independent Nation in 930 and lost its sovereignty three centuries later, becoming a dependency of Norway and later, of Denmark, only becoming independent again during WWII.In the three first centuries of its history, Iceland was routinely plagued by violence but for the most part it was just a farmer killing his neighbor over some bad looks or rumors that he might have insulted his per donkey, once. There was a Civil War though, from the late 12th century to the mid 13th, just before Iceland was swallowed by Norway.During the times when Iceland had lost its independence, there were some limited conflicts such as Germans and Brits murdering each other over who’d get to bring all the Icelandic dry fish home (true story), pirates, most of whom were from North-Africa, coming all the way to Iceland to do some old-school pillaging and slaving and of course that thing called WWII when Brits and Americans essentially treated Iceland as a giant parking-lot for destroyers and other warships. It is important to note though, that during this period, there was no such thing as an Icelandic army.After WWII, Iceland clubbed some Brits over who would take smelly fish home in their nets but the conflict wan’t military per se, even though it has since then been called “the Cod Wars.“Since then, Iceland has deployed its special-unit forces, the rad-named Víkingasveitin (Lit. Viking Squad) in a military context in Kosovo/ Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. However, it would be ridiculous to understand these example of microscopic peace-keeping operation (the squad has less than 50 men) as “War.” It’d be better seen as an example of expensive practical training for these special forces rather than an actual military conflict.So yes, excluding these examples and the Medieval civil war, Iceland pretty much has never been directly involved in any war, ever, in 1100 years. How cool is that?
When was the last time America was not involved in war?
Hi David, good question. Depends if you count the Cold War as a war. Doing some online research to confirm dates but my gut tells me the 70���s and 80’s, post Vietnam. Let's take a look at the 20th CenturyUNot quite the 20th century but I'm going to go out the other side to so worth counting. Teddy Roosevelt would impact American foreign policy and cut his teeth during this war so worth mentioning.The Banana Wars (1898–1934)Look this up on Wikipedia. This was a power projection in mainly South and Central America to protect economic interests. Countries include Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras et alPhilippine- American War (1899–1903)or (1913 if you count the insurrection (Moro rebellion)The Border War (1910–1919)Series of skirmishes between US and Mexico with Pancho Villa.World War I (1914–1918)The US wasn't involved for the whole duration.Russian Civil War (1918–1925)Mainly just military support to hold back the Communists rather than a full scale intervention.World War II (US involved from 1941–1945)Everyone knows this.Cold War (1947–91)Mentioned above, special case.Puerto Rican Revolts (1950–1954)Failed independence movement.Korean War (1950–1953)MacArthur and all that jazz.I'm leaving out 1958 Lebanon Crisis and Dominican Civil War as these are both a few months and very small.Vietnam War (1955–1975)Those dates surprising? US military advisors arrived in the early 50’s but escalated in the early 1960’s. Read “A Bright and Shining Lie” and Karl Malantes books for a better view.Operation Eagle Claw (1980)Failed attempt to rescue Iranian HostagesLebanon Intervention (1982–1984)Multinational force trying to peacekeep. This is where the Marine barracks was bomb and something like 243 marines were killed.Grenada (1983)See the movie Heartbreak Ridge basically.Operation Golden Phesant (1988)Honduras and Nicuragua and the Contras.Panama (1988–1989)Poor old Manuel NoriegaGulf War I (1990–1991)See Jarhead. Bush senior.UN intervention in Somalia (1992–95)See Blackhawk DownKosovo (1999)Military intervention in the former Yugoslavia.Global War on Terror (2001-Current)As we can see, there's a few gaps, from 1996–1998 Or 1985-1988 or 1976–1980. Depends how long you wanted. Some of these were probably already “ramping up” as the previous ones wrapped up.Hope that answers your question
Why is World War II so fascinating?
I would think that this history was clear to us what had happened. Instead we can not leave it alone. Examples Adolf Hitler did or didn't die? Germans made jets. German UFO the Bell. The U boats (aka submarines). Ships, tanks, and planes. Missiles, guns, clothes, and so on. I am sure this list could go on for more. What is your reason for back tracking? Is there a valid reason for your actions?
Was there ever a time in human history when no war took place and there was peace?
Well the last 50 years or so are the most peaceful years known to humanity. Even if there are still wars and famine and conflicts of ideology, in terms of percentages, less people die today because of wars than in the entire known history. This is surprisingly not what we are fed on the news, but it's true. It's tot only that we have less wars, but more important than that, there are considerably less war scenarios. During former times, for many decades or even longer periods of time there were less wars between neighboring countries or rivaling empires. But this doesn't mean that the countries weren't preparing constantly for war against their enemies or allies. What is today so special is that these war scenarios vanish from most of the countries in the world, there are still of course hot war zones but overall, these war preparations are gone. If Canada's defense minister would demand tomorrow 1billion CAD for his 2016 budget for a possible war with the US, the cabinet would put him in a mental hospital. There are several reasons for these peaceful times. First of all we live in a globalized world, where each minor conflict can spread very fast, destroying the virtual and imaginary global order that we created. The world today is deeply interconnected:Secondly, ironically, there is nothing more peaceful than owning the most powerful weapon known to man; since we invented the atomic weapons, a large-scale atomic conflict would have no winners, only losers on all sides, therefore we try to avoid self-destruction by avoiding conflicts at all costs. Thirdly, the wealth of a country today is no longer physical, and can't be directly "conquered" anymore, but it's in long-term social and economic stability and human knowledge, highly volatile concepts, very sensitive to conflicts.Why we are living these times is puzzling the historians. An even more important question is if this peace is meant to last.Source: Dr. Harari A Permanent Revolution