Saturday Morning Challenge: Name the last purely altruistic US military action

[Stinky The Clown]

Many here see our current adventitious insertion of troops into Uganada as humane and altruistic.

Name the last time we did something for purely altruistic reasons.

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Berlin Blockade 1948

Here is a list to choose from

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html


The list starts in 1890

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Heh, that 1890 Wounded Knee thng was a real hoot.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Yeah,the link started with that one which

got my attention.

[cliffordu]

23. BWAHAhahahH AHAHAHAHAHahahahah hahah aha hah

Perfect.

Thanks!!!

[lunatica]

2. The War of Independence

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Please explain how that was altruistic

I'm not saying it was wrong. But how was it altruistic. Seems to me it was pure self interest.

[mikehiggins]

3. never

Someone always has a vested interest in war...except for the guys who have to fight it. The only war in our history that even came close was WWII and that was more or less forced on us, IMHO.

[sakabatou]

7. When has a US military action ever been truly altruistic?

[PETRUS]

8. My thoughts exactly. nt

[AnOhioan]

9. Simple answer......none

[Drew Richards]

10. 2001 Mogadishu

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. Trick question

There never has and never will be a purely altruistic war. No people, no nation, operates purely from that basis. The last U.S. war with a significant altruistic component was Kosovo.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. No, it isn't a trick question. I am certain of that because I am the one asking.

Kosovo does come close to altruism.

[hatrack]

12. SE Asia tsunami relief? Don't know if that qualifies . . .

. . . as it was a naval deployment rather than actually sending soldiers or marines in on the ground.

Other than that, beats me . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Actually, that does seem to qualify. And it was mostly altruistic, I should think.

[geek tragedy]

15. Bosnia/Kosovo. Also Mogadishu under Clinton.

There's zero evidence this is anything but a humanitarian mission.

But, those who think Obama is the son of Satan will see it as a conspiracy to seize oil fields.

Unrec'd.

P.S. Bernie Sanders co-sponsored the bill authorizing this. Russ Feingold was the primary sponsor.

Too bad they're not as smart or progressive as most of DU. I guess that what happens when one cares more about human life in Africa than blind ideological dislike of the USG.

[joshcryer]

17. Bono sang "Miss Sarajevo" at the very end of the Clinton concert tonight.

Images of people in Sarajevo holding up signs saying "please help us," etc, etc. The cynicism is pretty remarkable when it comes to more recent events where people held up signs saying "please help us," and we did.

[AverageJoe90]

16. Probably Clinton's first attacks on the Taliban.

Other than perhaps Libya.......will consult the list.

[txlibdem]

19. Can't say Libya

"Natural resources: Petroleum, natural gas, gypsum"

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5425.htm

And I hear they are expert in polishing the finest marble, too.

As if Oil, Natural Gas, Gypsum weren't enough, here's another (recent) "justification" for war: water. Libya sits atop a huge aquifer:

"Much of Libya's water supply used to come from expensive desalination plants on the coast, which left little water to irrigate land—vital in this largely desert country. Moreover the coastal aquifer historically used in Tripoli was becoming contaminated and its salinity was increasing. So in 1983 a massive engineering project, known as the Great Man-Made River Project, was created to supply water from desert aquifers to the coastal region for the majority of the Libya's 6.3m people and to expand agriculture through irrigation.

The project, of which three phases out of five have been completed, is intended to supply 6.5m cubic metres of water a day through 4,000km of pipelines from 1,100 wells via five reservoirs at an estimated cost of $25 billion. The cost of this non-renewable water is approximately one tenth of the cost of desalinated water."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/03/libyas_water_supply

Water wars have begun!

[geek tragedy]

20. Libya was complex. nt

[joshcryer]

21. To be fair our involvement in that was minor and the Europeans benefit.

I wouldn't say it was purely altruistic, but I think political capital is less evil than resource capital. We did it for politics.

[AngkorWot]

18. You mean besides Uganda?

Libya.

[cliffordu]

22. Gee, stinks, isn't this the same bullshit you were pushing yesterday??

[Tx4obama]

24. Haiti 2010 Earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake left up to 316,000 people dead and 1.6 million homeless. Massive homelessness and displacement continues and does not appear to have significantly abated. Government agencies were also hard hit. Two days afterwards thousands of U.S. troops arrived to aid in the earthquake relief effort and relief agencies are playing a large role in rebuilding Haiti's infrastructure, while taking care of the short-term emergency needs of the many injured and displaced Haitians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti#2010.E2.80.932011:_Earthquake.2C_cholera.2C_and_flood_events


And since then, Libya and now Uganda.