Rastagir said:
(after all, as fox already has pointed out, America has never been invaded)
Goddamn, I hate when people post stuff that is historically incorrect... especially when it comes to military history.
Rastagir, I'm not trying to flame you or make you look the fool or anything remotely similar, so please don't misunderstand me. I'm only correcting your information since you're not a native of my country and may not fully know its history. Cool?
While America has never been "invaded" in the literal sense (i.e., hordes of blood-thirsty soldiers running amok through our streets; raping, pillaging, and otherwise creating havoc and chaos) we have indeed had invasions on our home soil:
(01).
War of 1812 - 18 June 1812
The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and United Kingdom from 1812 to 1815, on land in North America and at sea around the world.
Although the United States was officially at war with Great Britain, more than half of the British forces were made up of Canadian militia. Additionally, many North American Indian peoples (today most often called "Native Americans" in the United States and "First Nations" in Canada) fought on both sides of the war for reasons of their own. In the Northwest Territory, the War was, in a sense, a continuation of Tecumseh's War after his defeat in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
The war formally began on June 18, 1812 with the U.S. declaration of war. The United States launched invasions of the Canadian provinces in 1812 and 1813, but the borders were successfully defended by British and North American Indian forces. The United States gained the upper hand in the North American Indian part of war with victories at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813 and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, but by this time the United Kingdom had successfully concluded the Napoleonic wars and the British were finally able to divert more resources to North America. British invasions of American territory resulted in the burning of Washington, D.C. and the capture of part of the District of Maine, but the British counteroffensive was turned back at Lake Champlain, Baltimore, and New Orleans. The Treaty of Ghent (ratified in 1815) restored the status quo ante bellum between the combatants.
Although the War of 1812 ended as a victory for the Canadian side, Americans often refer to it as a stalemate and it is often only dimly remembered south of the border it established. It had many effects on the futures of those involved. The war created a greater sense of nationalism in both Canada and the United States. The successful defense of the Canadian provinces against American invasion ultimately ensured the survival of Canada as a nation, and the end of the war marked the decline of a longstanding desire of many Americans to see the British Empire expelled entirely from North America. Peace between the United States and British North America also meant that North American Indians could no longer use conflicts between the two powers to defend native lands against the expansion of white settlement.
(02).
07 December 1941 - Pearl Harbor, U.S. Naval Base, Oahu, Hawaii
On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a surprise attack on the US under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. This attack brought the United States into World War II. At 6:00 a.m. on December 7th the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 7:53 a.m.. They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged.
Also known as "A Day That Will Live In Infamy"
(03).
11 September 2001 - World Trade Center Complex, New York City, New York
The September 11, 2001 attacks (also referred to as 9/11), the worst and most infamous act of terrorism in World history, were a series of coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States of America carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in which hijackers took control of four U.S. domestic commercial airliners. The hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City — one into each of the two tallest towers, about 18 minutes apart. Within two hours, both towers had collapsed. The hijackers crashed the third aircraft into the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 80 miles (129 km) east of Pittsburgh, following passenger resistance. The official count records 2,986 deaths in the attacks, including the hijackers.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) states in its final report that the nineteen hijackers who carried out the attack were terrorists, and were all affiliated with the Islamic Al-Qaeda organization. The report named Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national, as the leader of Al-Qaeda, and as the person ultimately suspected responsible for the attacks, with the actual planning being undertaken by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Bin Laden categorically denied involvement in two 2001 statements [1], before admitting in a taped statement a direct link to the attacks.
The 9/11 Commission reported that these hijackers turned the planes into the largest suicide bombs in history. The September 11th attacks are among the most significant events to have occurred so far in the 21st century in terms of the profound economic, social, political, cultural, psychological and military effects that followed in the United States and many other parts of the world.
While I have nothing but the utmost respect for those who have served in their respective armed forces where ever they may reside, be it here or elsewhere, I'm going to take a moment and explain some things to some of y'all.
America is
not a police-state. We are a democracy. Our President does not make the decisions solely on a whim or on the fly. It takes a ratification / declaration by the United States Congress in order for us to go to war. The President does not hold that kind of power. We have three branches of government - Judicial, Legislative, and Executive. Their powers are balanced by each other. No one arm of our government is anymore powerful than the other. Furthermore, we are not run by a tin-pot despot nor are we ruled with an iron fist by a megalomaniac dictator. We may have had some vainglorious and inept leaders in our time, but I guarantee you that the United States of America - and her military - has pulled more asses out of the fire and out of harm's way than any other country that is considered to be our allies.
True, I will acknowledge that our goverment is imperfect and often seems to have its share of ridiculously comical and inept leaders. However, I get completely sick and tired when people who live elsewhere run my country down and talk about how we always seem to butt in to other countries' affairs and "occupy" those lands by force.
We do nothing of the kind. It is THOSE countries - the very ones who later spit on us, deride our country, and in general, just act like complete fucking asses - who always seem to clamor for all kinds of financial assistance and other aid from the United States Of America.
Please ... and this goes to everyone who posts about matters such as this:
If you're going to post, post your opinions. I will respect you more for your opinions if you speak your mind and engage in constructive debate. But if you're going to post facts, then you better make damned sure you
DO post
facts and not some made up
bull-shit from someone else who hasn't a clue about what goes on in the United States military.
And yes, people ... I
DO know what the United States military does; namely, the United States Marine Corps. Trust me on that score. A lot of you already know from what stance I speak.
That is all.
Semper Fi, Mac.
I just didn't want you to think I was trying to 
