Warless Commander In Chief, President - 2

Seeds of the killing fields

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has pointed out some strange facts about American Presidents.

For example, in the previous post of this series, it was pointed out that 61% of presidents have been involved in a war during their presidency, while 39% have not  (Warless Commander In Chief, President).

In fact, 100% of American Presidents have been involved in a war since President Carter left office on January 20, 1981.

Additionally, twenty-seven percent (27%) of all America Presidents have owned slaves (The Germ Theory - of Government - 7).

In yesterday's post (The One Party System of Gummit) we indicated that dissidents complain that there is only one political party, the business party, but perhaps the reality is that the one political party is actually The War Party.

I think this is a reflection on our culture (Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala, Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2, and Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 3),

Anyway, here is the text from the post on this date in 2009:

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It may be hard to believe, but some of the Presidents of the United States did not partake in wars during their time in office.

Here is a list of non-wartime Commanders In Chief whose military was at-ease, yes, U.S. Presidents who could focus on helping their own people, their own nation, at home:

* John Adams (2nd)
* John Quincy Adams (6th)
* Zachary Taylor (12th)
* Millard Fillmore (13th)
* Franklin Pierce (14th)
* Andrew Johnson (17th)
* Ulysses Grant (18th)
* James Garfield (20th)
* Chester Arthur (21st)
* Grover Cleveland (22nd)
* Benjamin Harrison (23rd)
* Grover Cleveland (24th)
* Theodore Roosevelt (26th)
* William Taft (27th)
* Calvin Coolidge (30th)
* Herbert Hoover (31st)
* Jimmy Carter (39th)

(Wikipedia). This is roughly 39% of those holding that office.

Which means that roughly 61% of the time U.S. Presidents are influenced by war, which James Madison (2 yr War of 1812, 4th President) called our greatest enemy.

Equally of note is that since Jimmy Carter left office, on January 20, 1981, we have been involved in wars.

That is about 28 years in a row with presidents involved in war and the war ideology, our worst enemy.

As we proclaim to the world that we are the exceptional nation of peace, our war budgets involve more war money than all of the rest of the nations of the earth combined.

Is it any wonder that we have a serious credibility problem?

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The previous post in this series is here.

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Carl Sagan's last interview:

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