The Stupidest War in History?

[Idealismania]

I agree with WW1. We never learned much about it in school, and I only first really learned about it when I read "Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger. I was absolutely amazed how most of Europe and well as many other nations got pulled into a war that was pretty much about absolutely nothing.

[Barrasso]

1.WW1
2.Childrens Crusade
3.Are we forgetting FUCKING GRENADA?

[Graditora]

Hm? I'd say the 100 hundred years war and the Crusades and the Punic wars. And many other medieval wars but going modern I'd say the Korean war and the Vietnam war.

[Caninope]

Hm? I'd say the 100 hundred years war and the Crusades and the Punic wars. And many other medieval wars but going modern I'd say the Korean war and the Vietnam war.

Korea? Punic Wars? And Vietnam's not even that bad.

[Astrolinium]

Hm? I'd say the 100 hundred years war and the Crusades and the Punic wars. And many other medieval wars but going modern I'd say the Korean war and the Vietnam war.

The Punic Wars were not medieval.

[Ifreann]

The Football War

That's what I was going to say.

[Astrolinium]

The Football War

That's what I was going to say.

Great minds think alike?

[Kuwat]

1.Iraq
2.afghanistan
3.Vietnam

Please, Afghanistan had a casus belli, Vietnam had ideological basis, and there have been far stupider wars. Period.

Is a casus belli worth thousands of lives? And is a ideological basis worth thousands of lives?

[Maroza]

The War of Jenkins's Ear (1739-42)

There was a British navy captain named Robert Jenkins. Jenkins's ship was boarded by nefarious Spaniards in 1731, and they, for reasons best known to them, felt it an appropriate time to slice off the good captain's ear.
Relations between Britain and Spain weren't exactly great at the time, though war had thus far been diverted through the actions of Sir Thomas Walpole, the British Prime Minster.By 1739, Britain had become bored of sitting around and not shooting the Spanish, so, to provide a reason to go to war, a Parliamentary hearing was called about Jenkins's de-earing eight years earlier, and he got to parade his severed and probably rather shriveled ear around parliament. Everyone there immediately declared this was a huge insult to the nation and war must begin forthwith.

Edit: Before you laugh an estimated half a million people died in this war

[Graditora]

Hm? I'd say the 100 hundred years war and the Crusades and the Punic wars. And many other medieval wars but going modern I'd say the Korean war and the Vietnam war.

Korea? Punic Wars? And Vietnam's not even that bad.

Its my own beliefs and opinions, take'em or leave'em, I come from a war veteran family from both wars and all they have to say is that we should have never got involved at all. Punic wars! That was a war over land! Which in my idea is just dumb.

Hm? I'd say the 100 hundred years war and the Crusades and the Punic wars. And many other medieval wars but going modern I'd say the Korean war and the Vietnam war.

The Punic Wars were not medieval.

I know that... -_-

And I meant other medieval wars I never said the Punic wars was medieval tho...

[Wazkyraque]

Paraguayan war was pretty stupid.

That war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 was over a soccer game was idiocy.

The War Of The Oaken Bucket, The War Of The Stray Dog, The Pig War were all dumb beyond comprehension.

[Caninope]

Please, Afghanistan had a casus belli, Vietnam had ideological basis, and there have been far stupider wars. Period.

Is a casus belli worth thousands of lives? And is a ideological basis worth thousands of lives?

Yes to the first one, possibly to the second one.

[Fedeledland]

The Football War

Speaking of Latin American wars...

Says the nation who fought over a pig, an accident, tea and stamps, of all things and no reason in particular...

[RIP Kim Jong Il]

what about the war that lasted 45 minutes.

[Caninope]

Korea? Punic Wars? And Vietnam's not even that bad.

Its my own beliefs and opinions, take'em or leave'em, I come from a war veteran family from both wars and all they have to say is that we should have never got involved at all. Punic wars! That was a war over land! Which in my idea is just dumb.

How about we debate them? This is a debate forum. Besides, I have family members who served in both wars. Korea saved South Korea, a now prosperous nation.

In addition, the Punic Wars weren't so much about land as much as they were inevitable conflicts between an established power and a rising power. The 3rd Punic War was unnecessary though.

[Great Malema]

what about the war that lasted 45 minutes.

The Anglo-Zanzibar War? That lasted 38 minutes and I already mentioned that.

[Zebbstar]

All of them.

[Wazkyraque]

All of them.

This^

[Conserative Morality]

WW1. It brings me to tears, at times.

[Volmachtia]

Speaking of Latin American wars...

Says the nation who fought over a pig, an accident, tea and stamps, of all things and no reason in particular...

*cough* The American Revolution was about a whole lot more than tea/stamps. I suggest you dig a bit deeper.

[Conserative Morality]

All of them.

Eh, no.

[Dagnia]

Stupidest for what? Reasons for going into it or how it was fought?

In no particular order, some of my picks:
* The Children's Crusade (for both how it was fought and the reasons for going into it)
* World War 1 (same as above, fighting in trenches because of the loyalties of a bunch of stuffy royals who rarely step outside the palace walls)
* The Vietnam War (though after seeing the horrors of communism in China, the Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine, any rational person would want to fight communism, why Vietnam and not Cuba, only 90 miles from Florida? In addition, the "Domino Theory" that got us into that one only holds if nations have a corrupt leadership, and the US policy at the time was to be simply against communism and not for democracy, meaning it would sometimes support corrupt dictators as long as they were not communist ones. In addition, bombings of the North were stopped at critical times and at any given time there were enough American troops to stand in a line going from Saigon to Hanoi. So definitely both on this one.)
* The Falklands War (for the reasons entirely, since at least there was a decisive victor here and just maybe saving face for Britain was a valid reason to go to war, but still, it is a collection of rocks just barely above Antarctica)

Can anyone think of a war that was fought for a good reason but that was fought in a stupid way? I would guess there are none, since anything actually worth fighting for is something you are going to want to fight for with the best methods and best people.

[Fedeledland]

Says the nation who fought over a pig, an accident, tea and stamps, of all things and no reason in particular...

*cough* The American Revolution was a whole lot more than tea stamps. I suggest you dig a bit deeper.

And those Latin wars were a whole lot more. It was just the catalyst. Just like WWI wasn't FF's death but a whole lot of tension.

[Graditora]

All of them.

EXACTLY!!!

Its my own beliefs and opinions, take'em or leave'em, I come from a war veteran family from both wars and all they have to say is that we should have never got involved at all. Punic wars! That was a war over land! Which in my idea is just dumb.

How about we debate them? This is a debate forum. Besides, I have family members who served in both wars. Korea saved South Korea, a now prosperous nation.

In addition, the Punic Wars weren't so much about land as much as they were inevitable conflicts between an established power and a rising power. The 3rd Punic War was unnecessary though.

I was kinda expecting that tho

[Odins Scandinavia]

Coming off the heels of the Iraq occupation, I'd say now seems like a good time to discuss the stupidity of war, or rather: wars that were stupid.

I'm taking the easy way out and going with Vietnam. I mean, Iraq was bad enough, but with Vietnam, we're talking about twice the length. Throw in the bureaucracy, government deceptions, (seriously, writing a resolution and then just filling in the blanks with "Gulf of Tonkin"?) and poor military strategy and you've got the perfect recipe for a twenty-year debacle.

And...begin!

world war one, AKA the prototype for the Iraq war