In hindsight--American Wars

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Revolutionary War (really should be called the American War of Independence)

Quasi-War (probably should have declared War on France and had a legit war in this case)

War of 1812 (not a great outcome for us, but hey, had to stop the British from impressing our sailors)

Mexican War (This pretty much sums up why I think we had to do something in this instance)

American Civil War (self-explanatory)

World War I (Germany interfering in Latin American affairs, plus U-boat warfare)

World War II (self-explanatory)

Korean War (North Korea launched a war of aggression against the South, so we had to intervene  and drive them out of the country)

Vietnam War (The rationale was good (prevent the Indochinese version of Kim Il Sung from taking over all of Vietnam), but the execution, not so much. Even so, Vietnam is a war I would have supported simply because it was in the context of our larger Cold War efforts against communism)

Operation Just Cause

First Gulf War (same basic issue as Korea)

Bosnian War

Kosovo War

Afghan War (again, rationale was correct, but everything that followed...not so much. We should have gotten the hell out of there after we nixed OBL)

Operation Unified Protector (Libya)

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Even allowing for some pro-Confederate respondents, I find the number of voters who chose the Civil War--20 out of 30--surprisingly low.  For those who didn't choose it, I'd be interested to know what your reasons are.

In my case it is because I consider the right of people to national self-determination important. The Southern republics had political interests divergent from those of their counterparts in the North. Refusing to accept the legitimacy of succession was not worth throwing away tens of thousands of lives over and - although under different circumstances I'd have stubbornly fancied war against the CSA on humanitarian grounds - at the time I suspect said country posed too great a threat to the Union to be prudently tangled with in a full-blown conflict. For now I think a diplomatic, non-violent resolution and an agreement for peaceable coexistence would have been preferable.

>implying that Southerners are a separate nationality

'Divergent political interests' in this case means slavery. How in the world does a socialist defend the right of slaveowners to try and destroy the United States (because they lost an election) because they want to continue owning, oppressing, and crippling other human beings?

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Also, who else is disturbed that four of our users would not go to war against Nazi Germany and Japan after they declared war on us?

I believe those are people who thought that we should not have materially supported the Soviets/British and thus wouldn't have had war declared upon us.

And they're dead wrong. Anyone who assumes that Hitler would have been satisfied with Europe obviously didn't learn the right lessons from how Hitler nearly became master of Europe as it were.