US has been at war throughout most of its history

The United States has been perpetually at conflict with other nations throughout most of its history, following the expansionist tradition of past empires, says an American political analyst in Virginia.

“We had the War of 1812, the Mexican war, the Civil War, the wars with various Native American nations (tribes), the Spanish–American War, the two world wars, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, Iraq twice, Afghanistan, just to name some of the major ones,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.

“We also have to consider all of the different wars that the United States has played an indirect role in terms of either engineering coups or arming insurgents or funding a particular state that is engaged in a war against its domestic population,” Preston told Press TV on Tuesday.

“When we add all of those wars, we see that the United States has literally been involved in wars in probably hundreds of different countries and territories over the past couple of centuries,” he added.

Former US President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that America has only enjoyed 16 years of peace in its 242-year history, making the country “the most warlike nation in the history of the world.”

Speaking at his regular Sunday School lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Carter said the reason for most US wars was Washington’s tendency to force other nations to “adopt our American principles.”

Carter said that China, in contrast to the US, had made massive economic progress by maintaining peace. “How many miles of high-speed railroad do we have in this country?” he asked.

The US has “wasted, I think, $3 trillion” on military spending. “It’s more than you can imagine. China has not wasted a single penny on war, and that’s why they’re ahead of us. In almost every way.”

“And I think the difference is if you take $3 trillion and put it in American infrastructure you’d probably have $2 trillion leftover. We’d have high-speed railroad. We’d have bridges that aren’t collapsing, we’d have roads that are maintained properly. Our education system would be as good as that of say South Korea or Hong Kong,” Carter told the congregation.