What's The Longest We've Gone Without a War?

[RandomlySet]

This morning on the news they were talking about the war in (on?) Syria. The professor they were speaking to said that we (the "West") have been in a war for the past 16 years....

I commented to SWBMO that we've been in one war or another for the past 100 or so years. It feels like we (the "West") are always in a war, or invading some other country.

I mentioned WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Falklands, Bosnia, Afganistan etc etc.... Granted, we - the Brits - were not involved in the Vietnam war, but what people speak of "The West", you know they basically mean Britain, USA and a few other European countries.

So, what is the longest the "West" have actually gone without being involved in some sort of war or conflict?

A quick search on Google, brings up this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_British_Army_1900–99
But that's just wars that Britain have been involved with.

 

[Cartus]

The British army has almost continually been engaged in warfare somewhere or other since its formation around 1700. Many of the adversaries have been other 'western' countries over the years of course.

I doubt whether there are many other countries that have been as belligerent in recent history as the United Kingdom.

 

[Bristolian]

The British army has almost continually been engaged in warfare somewhere or other since its formation around 1700. Many of the adversaries have been other 'western' countries over the years of course.

I doubt whether there are many other countries that have been as belligerent in recent history as the United Kingdom.

I have been personally involved in a few of those conflicts either as a peacemaker of peacekeeper but never as an aggressor. Yes, the UK has been belligerent in the distant past but in more recent years normally as part of a UN or NATO coalition force rather than on its own - of course, there are exceptions to that and we never really know what the Hereford lot are up to

 

[chrism_scotland]

If you include peacekeeping (Balkans in the 90's) then its probably basically constant.
That said its totally unsustainable now, the UK Military is a shadow of its former self, its all a bit laughable the state currently, needs more money spent on it, and certainly if we're to be the "Global Britain" that certain politicians keep harping on about.

 

[andya700]

There are a few wars which Britain was involved in which are not on that list.
Churchill (the great British "hero"), used chemical weapons against the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1919. A couple of years earlier he had done the same thing against Gaza, using 10,000 cans of deadly gas.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/s...nston-churchill-shocking-use-chemical-weapons

Britain again used chemical weapons against the Shia and Sunni people (who had united against the imperial invader) in Iraq, all through the 1920's and 30's.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29441383

In 1953, unsurprisingly due to Churchill (his final fling as PM), Britain together with the US (Kermit Roosevelt of the CIA), organised "Operation Ajax", the coup in Iran which removed the nationalist democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh, and put the puppet ruler Shah Pahlavi on the Peacock throne.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits-role-1953-iranian-coup

If we fast forward to 2014, the US, UK, France and others (Turkey, Israel), are breaking international law by carrying out air and ground attacks in Syria. Russia on the other hand, have been invited to fight against Islamic extremist groups in Syria by president Assad, added to which Russia has a naval base and an air base in Syria.
Practically every conflict in the Middle East over the past hundred years, has been as a result of what historians call - "The Great Game", a geopolitical struggle between the West and Russia which started in the 19th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game

However, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2001/2003 did not happen by accident, revenge or because of suspected weapons of mass destruction, they happened because of a very deliberate attempt by the Neocons in the US (helped by Tony Blair) to create a "New World Order"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1436106/Blairs-new-world-order-blocked.html

Finally, in the following video, ex general Wesley Clarke (Supreme allied commander of NATO from 1997 - 2000) describes how the Neocons in the US, planned to take out/invade seven countries in five years, including Iraq, Libya and Syria and finally finishing with Iran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=9RC1Mepk_Sw