Usa interventions plus spendings

USA army introduction

Total Budget for Defense: 689 billion dolars(1 billion dolar per day for anti-terrorist
interventions)

Total spendings on war: 1,100 billion dolars

Active Military Personel: 1,5 million

Tanks: 8300

Aircrafts: 13 500- first place worldwide

Nuclear warheads: 7500

-controls key positions and has strong allies all around the globe=> ME- Qatar, can deploy
airtroops imeddiately in the region

-high tech weaponry, being made because of the budget that they have; a lot of money is pumped
in developing drones and new tactics for guerrilla war

Main interventions of USA

Korean War ( 1950-1953)

-war between South and North Korea fighting for their border, in the events of the Cold War
-North Korea was backed up by Russia and China, because USA had just retreated their troups
from the region and Stalin wanted to take control over South Korea because their army was
unprepared
-USA intervened because the communist were posing a big threat for Japan and the other states
in the region, which had just managed to get out of the autocratic system; moreover, if North
Korea would have won, the whole intervention would have had a domino effect, meaning that
more states would go for the communist system
-Usa brought both logistic support and military troups in the region, and threatened to use the
nuclear power in 1950 in case North Korea would violate the borders
-1953=> agreement between both sides, but right now on 4 kilometres wide are still conflicts and
a safe distance is kept in both countries, a space where no infrastructure is built
-on the aftermath, USA paid South Korea 235 million $ and gave them millitary help; right now,
they are an important ally to USA
Total money spent by the USA: 30 billion dolars=> 340 billion dolars after Fiscal Year 2011

Vietnam War ( 1953-1975) -war between South Vietnam and North; the North was backed by
the Soviets and the Southern part by USA
-longest time in USA history, 15 years(1960-1975)
-1 million North Vietnamese soldiers killed and 250 000 Southern soldiers killed; Vietnamese
army was outnumbered but USA had suffered a terrible defeat, because they didn't know the
terrain well enough and the whole war was based on guerrilla tactics, that USA severely lacked
-by 1969, 500 000 US soldiers were stationed in the region
-in 1972 USA troops had to withdrawn, 60 000 soldiers were dead and 160 000 severely
wounded
-in 1975, North Vietnam took over Saigon, which meant the communist era in the region was
born; USA civilians and vietnamese were withdrawn by helicopters from the war zone in safer
area, and in that time the communist managed to take control over the region
-the intervention is regarded as one of the biggest fails in USA history, and president Nixon had
to resign, being forced by the population=> demanding teenagers to go back to their home and
not die fighting for other country's war; moreover, no one sustained the intervention and that's
one of the main reasons why the USA backed out of Vietnam

Total spendings by USA: 110 billion dolars=> 736 billion dolars Fiscal Year 2011

American occupation of Domican Republic ( 1965-1966)

-was an intervention held by the Americans after the death of the dictator Raphael Trujillo. After
this incident on the board was elected Juan Bosch who was believed to lead to another
communist system named another Cuba . His attitude towards the hierarchy from the state
lead to the Triunvirato who tried to express their legitimacy but the only thing they succeeded
was to create the revolution inside the country. The victory of this civil war was towards USA
and they replaced Juan Bosch.

First Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)

-was a direct conflict between the usa and Libya . Libya declared in 1973 the Persia golf to be
part of their state and this made USA to be dismissive upon this as they conducted the FON
operations in the area since the claim didn't meet the criteria established by the international law.
In 1981 there was a conflict as two Libyan aircrafts attacked American airplanes but were
subsequently shut down.
Invasion of Grenada ( 1983)
-was an intervention led by America to invade Grenada called the fury intervention which was
triggered by the house arrest and killing of the leader of the coup . This moment was
characterized by a revolutionary government which lasted 4 years. The impact of this
intervention was to restaurate the previous regime.
Invasion of Panama ( 1989-1990)
- was just a definitely movement as previously America maintained the control in the Panama
Canal to have free trade through Torrijos-Carter treaties created by carter president on 7th of
September in 1977.

Persian Gulf War ( 1990-1991) => Operation Desert Shield

-was triggered by the Kuwaits invation by the Iraqi and was a war waged by coalition forces
from 34 nations lead by the USA
-in 1991 Iraq didn't respect the UN demands to withdraw from Kuweit and USA intervened with
both air strikes and ground troops; they had 540 000 troops deployed
-On 2nd of august 1990 when iraqian troops invaded Kuwait , there were immediate sanctions
brought from international Commendation. The intervention was led by G. W Bush and after a
while they have withdrawn their troops and just learned militants to fight and gave them
strategies.

Spendings: 61 billion dolars=> 111 bilion dolars Fiscal Year 2011

Somali Civil War ( 1990-1994)

-was a war which grew its intensifity after the resistance of the Siad Barre regime during the
1980s .Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed,
which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid-1990s
- returning to their classic religon and establishing autonomous regions in the Northern Part

Bosnian war (1993-1995)

-was a war between some political but as well ethnical parties which concluded with a civil
war. The UN and a host of regional organizations EC, NATO have repeatedly floundered in
their efforts to end the carnage and produce a lasting political settlement acceptable to the rival
ethnic factions
-Bosnia represents a fail in the post Cold War peace that needed to be enabled, because a lot of
ethnic massacres were continuously done within the country

Operations Uphold Democracy ( 1994-1995)

-was an intervention of the USA , a military one , when they wanted to remove that dictatorship
system and the entire movement has been approved by the Un on 31st July of 1994 .

Kosovo War ( 1998-1999) -was a civil war triggered by the need of the region Kosovo to
become independent , but Serbia still found it to be its territory and this refuse became more like
a civil war.
-Usa was on the part of Kosovo and sustained their cause with UN who found this civil war a
anti humanity activity and gave a hand of help as well.
-along with NATO, USA sustained Kosovo and bombed the Serbian forces in order to help the
Kosovian army to claim the region
War in Afghanistan ( 2001- present )
-is a war which was trigerred by the attack on 9.11 and its an intervention led by NATO and
allied forces in the ongoing Afghan civil war. Their purpose is to cut down Al-Qaeda power
upon these territories and to remove Taliban from power.
-so far they succeeded in defeating of the Taliban government in Afghanistan , falling of the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , destructing al-Qaeda camps , killing of Osama bin Laden
,establishing new Afghan government , creating new Afghan National Army.
-in April, Usa began the withdrawal of troops, and after that the taliban atacks escalated hard

Spendings: 300 billion dolars

Iraq War ( 2003- 2011) was an intervention from United States and was constructed on two
phases which had priority that led to the end of Ba'athist Iraq.
-Before the intervention happened , in 2002 the United Nations Security Council did an
investigation through Iraqi as they have passed Resolution 1441 which called for Iraq to
completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that Iraq was not in possession of
WMD and cruise missiles.
-USA invaded Iraq invoking pre emptive strike because Iraq was posing a big terrorist threat to
them, saying that Hussein backed al-Qaeda, even if no evidence was found
-they brought down Saddam Hussein regime and executed him
-265 000 deployed troops
-al-Qaeda atacks intensifies, but USA manages to impose democratic elections and a Shia
government is chosen

War in North-Western Pakistan ( 2004-present)

- armed conflict which began in 2004 when tensions, rooted in the Pakistan Army's search for al-
Qaeda fighters in Pakistan's mountainous Waziristan area (in the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas), escalated into armed resistance.
-Pakistan's actions were presented as its contribution to the international War on Terror
-the war depleted the country's manpower resources and the outcomes outlined a deep effect on
its national economy since Pakistan had joined the U.S-led War on Terror.
-since 2004, USA atacked key areas in Pakistan in order to combat al-Qaeda using drones; the
public opinion of the locals about drones is not positive, because they killed a lot of locals, but
managed to kill 60 high priority targets within the region

2011 Libyia Intervention (2011)

-was a military intervention to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 to
have "an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians,
which it said might constitute crimes against humanity"
-the measure was taken during Libyia Civil War, which happened in Arab Spring, when forces
from France, GB and US had a coordinated atack, along with NATO members( Romania with
fregate Regele Ferdinand, sorry nu m-am putut abtine)
-imposed a no fly zone and a naval blockade in order to stop Gaddafi's power. The intervention
stopped when he was killed
ISIS ( 2014)
-radical islamist group who wants to unite all muslims across ME under the sharia-law. Till now,
they have completely erased the borders between Syria and Iraq
-on August 7 president Barack Obama authorized strikes against ISIS because they atacked the
safe territories of the kurds and threathened the kurdish capital of Erbil, plus they forced a big
part of Yazidis to refuge on a nearby mountain
-september 10- US announced a strategy meant to destroy ISIS=> expanded air raids in both
countries and the provision of arms and training to local allies on the ground
-september 22- US started air strikes in Syria and started an alliance against ISIS along with UK,
France and countries from ME; they had intensified air raids plus drones accross the country+
they offered logistic support to the moderate rebels there; aprox 400 raids in Syria and 150 in
Iraq till now
- 2 october- Turkey's Parliament approved interventions against ISIS=> high threat to the
country, authorising the use of armed forces against them; Iran warned them that this measure
will aggravate the situation in the region+ the population in Turkey didn't support the motion

Drones

-unmaned aerial vehicle, usually armed, that is used both for scouting the region or for atacking
key locations on the map. They are fully controlled by humans all time
-they have smaller size because they don'e need cockpit, ejection seat and so on that a pilot
needed, and because of that they are harder to tackle
-appeared in 1950, being named FRAM program, in order to tackle the expansionism of the
soviet fleet of submarines; US were unable to build anti submarine fregates in a short amount of
time and because of that they reused parts of older ships in order to build unmaned vehicles that
could send rockets for long distances
-in recent yeara, USA has increased it's use of drones because of the anti terror war in Pakistan,
Iraq and Syria. It is estimated that approximately 2400 people died in Pakistan from US drones
-total cost:2,4 billion $, 4 million $ per unit produced

Advantages: -reducing civilian casualties=> 15-30% from the total deaths are from drones(till
2004), as compared to 50-70% in normal warfare
-efficient on atacking key locations=> precise missiles that can strike from a very long
distance(50 km) and hard to identify=> hard to tackle from opposing forces
-great capabilities of offering importanf informations about the combat zone( scouting drones)=>
equiped with infrared and night vision=> good in different scenarios, shorter war because the
atacks are more organised and better executed

Disadvantages:- promoting an emotional disengagement from the horrors of war=> you no

longer see the enemy as a human being, but rather as a shiny point on the radar=>lossing the
dettering of preventing this kind of tragedies and using war only as a last resort option(same
thing happened during Gulf War when smart bombs were used)
-the pilot of the drone suffers emotional trauma over a long period of time, because he sees
closely the horrors of war that he comits; moreover, it is a high pressure on his shoulders because
he can't say everytime is something is dangerous or not and can't prevent traps that are
intentionally set by enemies=> decrease in jobs in these sectors+ no list of the suicides commited
in this job is published=> gov acknowledges the risks and the negative impact that it has on these
individuals, that are unsure of what they are doing( if it is good or bad)
-civilians killed accidentally, because of bad identification of targets(considered terrorists)
-lacks moral value in integrity, highly valuable in a war
-contraveins the principles that USA is fighting for(peace and democracy), and promotes a secret
and sophisticated war between countries

Public Opinion: -In USA, 75% percent of people approve the use of drone, as it is more efficient
and doesn't imply killing of US citizens
-outside US, it is a high disaproval rate for the US drones, as high as 95% dissaproval in Spain
and Greece. Even GB has a 40% dissaproval rate, even if they use drones extensively
-in ME countries, drones are perceived as killers of innocent civilians, and makes the anti
western ideology more and more pregnant into the society=> terrorist groups are gaining
legitimacy=> more power and more recruits in the state

Usage of drones: Pakistan=> used against taliban forces, as a pre emptive strike in order to
combat terrorism(talibans)
-regarded as an infringement of sovereignity from the government of Pakistan and demanded US
to stop atacking with drones in 2013, but USA reused the strategy in 2014
-riots all accross the country against US interventions, because a high percentage of civilians and
kids were killed during the air raids=> 70 kids were killed when going to school in 2006
ISIS=> usage of drones and airstrikes was approved by Barack Obama in order to combat the
ISIS threat
-used in order to tackle key locations around the map, having ground support from the moderate
rebels like the kurdish forces
-used drones for surveilance and interventions, because Obama doesn't want to engage in another
full scale war against Iraq or Syria, cause he doesn't have the support of the locals
-stopped the advancement of ISIS in Kobani, and helped the people in Iraq to regain the Mosul
Dam