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US launched 251 military interventions since 1991, and 469 since 1798

The US military launched 469 foreign interventions since 1798, including 251 since the end of the first cold war in 1991, according to official Congressional Research Service data.

Countries 469 US military interventions map

The United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022.

This is according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress.

The report documented another 218 US military interventions from 1798 to 1990.

That makes for a total of 469 US military interventions since 1798 that have been acknowledged by the Congress.

This data was published on March 8, 2022 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in a document titled “Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2022.”

The list of countries targeted by the US military includes the vast majority of the nations on Earth, including almost every single country in Latin America and the Caribbean and most of the African continent.

From the beginning of 1991 to the beginning of 2004, the US military launched 100 interventions, according to CRS.

That number grew to 200 military interventions between 1991 and 2018.

Countries US military interventions map

The report shows that, since the end of the first cold war in 1991, at the moment of US unipolar hegemony, the number of Washington’s military interventions abroad substantially increased.

Of the total 469 documented foreign military interventions, the Congressional Research Service noted that the US government only formally declared war 11 times, in just five separate wars.

The data exclude the independence war between US settlers and the British empire, any military deployments from 1776 to 1798, and the US Civil War.

It is important to stress that all of these numbers are conservative estimates, because they do not include US special operations, covert actions, or domestic deployments.

The CRS report clarified:

The list does not include covert actions or numerous occurrences in which U.S. forces have been stationed abroad since World War II in occupation forces or for participation in mutual security organizations, base agreements, or routine military assistance or training operations.

The report likewise excludes the deployment of the US military forces against Indigenous peoples, when they were systematically ethnically cleansed in the violent process of westward settler-colonial expansion.

CRS acknowledged that it left out the “continual use of U.S. military units in the exploration, settlement, and pacification of the western part of the United States.”

US military interventions era region

Credit: Military Intervention Project at Tufts University

The Military Intervention Project at Tufts University’s Center for Strategic Studies has documented even more foreign meddling.

“The US has undertaken over 500 international military interventions since 1776, with nearly 60% undertaken between 1950 and 2017,” the project wrote. “What’s more, over one-third of these missions occurred after 1999.”

The Military Intervention Project added: “With the end of the Cold War era, we would expect the US to decrease its military interventions abroad, assuming lower threats and interests at stake. But these patterns reveal the opposite – the US has increased its military involvements abroad.”

US military interventions year region

Credit: Military Intervention Project at Tufts University

20 Comments

20 Comments

  1. daniel.cihomsky

    2022-09-14 at 08:34

    Yes , the world 🌎🌍 is a dangerous place and dictatorships are everywhere.

    • Robert

      2022-09-16 at 18:39

      Yes, USA military interventions give birth to ruthless dictatorships.

    • John Kelly

      2022-09-18 at 09:59

      These dictatorships you mention were installed by the #1 death cult on the planet(USA!!!)using regime change coups, assassinations, invasions, stolen elections, bombing campaigns, and the financial crime of economic sanctions… to mention but a few of the methods deployed.

    • Georges Olivier Daudelin

      2022-09-20 at 06:26

      La dictature est surtout au pays de Washington. La BÊTE y a établi son antre capitale en provenance du monde occidental européen. La BÊTE se fait présentement terrassée, il est grand temps: plus de 2 000 ans se sont écoulés depuis.

  2. Ruedi Bosshart

    2022-09-14 at 14:32

    Excellent work Benjamin Norton!
    Congratulation.

  3. julianmacfarlane

    2022-09-17 at 22:45

    Norton is always good. But you US Empire is committing suicide. We can see that in Ukraine. It loses wars. It only wins the media war. But that war is an attack on its own people. https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/lies-damned-lies-the-media-and-kharkov

  4. kaz

    2022-09-20 at 10:12

    the usa has a terrible record of militarism over the past thirty years. it has spent huge amounts of money but achieved nothing. the last positive win was 1945. so what the fuck’s going on? pretty simple. the us economy is fucked. has been since 1980 or so. the only thing keeping the balls in the air is massive state spending. take away that prop, like certain whacky dudes want, and the whole thing will grind to a halt, just like all those crappy little countries the yanks pour scorn at. results aren’t important. filling the pockets of the billionaire goldbrickers is.

    • Sam Liu

      2022-10-06 at 01:13

      Yes. You hit the nail on the head.

    • HoHo

      2023-09-20 at 02:26

      The US DID NOT win WWII. The Russians and the Chinese killed most of the fascists; 8 out of 10 German soldiers were killed by the Russians, who sacrificed about 27 million of their patriots whereas the Chinese sacrificed 13 million of their own. The US just “showed’ up and “claimed” to be the liberator. It was all about Hollywood.

  5. Suara Rakyat

    2022-09-22 at 07:25

    US is the biggest bully and aggressor in the world yet calling China the aggressor in South China Sea.

    How many countries has the US invaded? How many assassinations instigated by the CIA? It’s a barbaric country.

  6. Manuel

    2022-10-02 at 13:39

    The empire is over though. I’m not calling it to shift our anti-imperialist focus like the fake Maoist imperialists did, this time we have to make certain the beast is dead before we tackle any other problem.

    But the US is slowly dying and we have to celebrate that. It’s never been clearer than in the past 2 years. You can feel a wave of optimism and courage radiating everywhere. The imperialised world will be freer than it’s ever been since Europe found America or maybe since Europe crusaded against West Asia. This in turn will make workers freer than ever from their national capitalists and women freer from their own men.

    Feel the optimism comrades, this is a great time to be a communist.

    • Elis

      2023-10-12 at 05:12

      Твой раб никогда не станет твоим другом.
      Это можно ответить тем, кто хочет управлять миром, власть ищет рабов и пораждает превосходство господ..))
      Существует другая модель самоуправления, это дружба, где сердце каждого открыто и его свет возвышает наш дух, где существует уважение и истинная любовь друг другу..))

      • David Dieini

        2024-09-14 at 03:26

        Yes bro. They breed hatred and divisions to destroy our humanity and empathy, and this is what we fight against

  7. Chris Splashh

    2022-10-07 at 02:38

    This is the Matrix and the US is agent Smith in revolutions.

  8. clark cook

    2022-10-11 at 05:29

    Numbers impress. Generalizations are easy. Blanket conclusions seduce the unwary (ie, “this is a great time to be a communist”). I hold NO brief for US Militarism, which as a quasi-institution has shit the bed more than it has smoothed the sheets, as it has fumbled and tripped over its own principles and procedures more than it has produced laudable results over the past 60 years or so.

    How else might it have proceeded? Let’s just say that from 1945 onward, the US invested only modestly in its military, honouring its obligations to NATO and NORAD but concentrating its economic muscle on retooling its industries to peacetime use, investing heavily in its decaying infrastructure, developing its educational, research, and medical resources–in other words, devoting its energy to the domestic well-being of its people and its institutions.

    Observing this insular dedication to its own well-being, how would the-then USSR have reacted? Or increasingly powerful China? Or tyrannical regimes like North Korea? In your personal life, how did you fare against bullies when you treated them with kindness and understanding, or tried to appeal to their sense of fairness through rational discourse?

    Yes, US Militarism is deplorable philosophically and has resulted in some shocking injustices through mismanagement, dishonesty, and insane expenditures of trillions of dollars. So let’s concede that their EXECUTION of their mandates and their perception of their duties has been one cluster-fuck after the other.

    So how would our world look today if US Militarism had been defanged as described earlier in this post? Whose giant photos would be displayed in Times Square? What flag would be flying in the capitol of YOUR country? How many jeeps with .50 cal guns and uniformed men would be patrolling the streets of your town?

    I deplore US Militarism. I also know the answers to the questions in the last paragraph.

    Do you?
    .

  9. Ada

    2022-10-31 at 10:44

    Below is what I believe, mainly written by a YouTuber some time ago, hopefully Queen can give some comments since you are expert in economics:

    Right now, the US Dollar makes up 2/3rds of the worlds global reserve currency. This is because nearly every oil-exporting country in the world exclusively sells their oil in dollars, so nations are forced to hoard large amounts of the dollar.
    There are two countries that don’t sell their oil in the dollar: Syria, and Iran.
    If these two countries joined forces, got Venezuela on their side, maybe a few other countries, and then made an economic treaty with the BRICS nations, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, to buy their oil in a currency other than the US dollar, the economy would collapse
    All countries in the world would send their massive hoards of the dollar back to the Fed in exchange for whichever currency replaces it. The value of the dollar would shrink dramatically and the Fed would be forced to take steps to shrink the money supply to stem massive inflation. The raising of the Federal Funds rate would mean that there would not be enough new loans created to pay off old loans (which is necessary, because there is always more debt in the economy than there is money, because money is created with interest attached, from the very beginning we are all indebted to a small cabal that sits behind the federal reserve). The defaulting of loans would lead to a chain reaction that would collapse the $700,000,000,000,000 derivatives market. In addition, the Fed wouldn’t be able to mindlessly pump money into the economy anymore such as with their current policy of quantitative easing.
    In 2001, Iraq began selling their oil in the Euro. We invaded.
    In 2010 Gaddafi proposed a new currency called the Gold Dinar to replace the dollar for oil sales. We bombed the shit out of his country and caused a regime change.
    Syria moved away from the Dollar in 06 and Iran in 08. That is what this is all about. There are other geopolitical objectives, sure, such as the pipeline that Syria signed with Iran instead of the US friendly Qatar, but the Petrodollar is the king. It is literally the only reason the dollar and US economy is stable. The entirety of the Western financial elite need the Petrodollar system and they are willing to go to war and kill millions to defend it. Recently Russia signed huge oil deals with China in EURO. So both Russia and Europe must be targeted. Hence the Ukraine operation.
    Some food for thought: how are they able to keep discussion about the petrodollar completely out of the mainstream media and politics? Hundreds, maybe thousands of people acting in concert to lie to the American people for another war. And they will do the same after Ukraine.

  10. engineer

    2023-08-11 at 02:39

    469 since 1798 = is NOT correct

    >=470 since 1798

    ============
    War of 1812 : when the malignant pestilents invaded pre-Canada
    ============

  11. southernbelle

    2024-01-25 at 12:05

    and when sanctions are added, it is easy to understand why so many other nations are eager to join BRICS and focus only on trade and infrastructure projects rather than war.

  12. Albert De

    2024-09-02 at 07:05

    I second engineer’s comment. You forgot the War of 1812, where the US got its *as handed to it. Just think, why tgevWhite House painted white. To hide the burn marks…

  13. michael burgwin

    2024-09-02 at 09:20

    The US Govt (Inc) Is NOT the US or the USA. Please help distinguish between the criminal enterprise and the USA.

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