Question: Has a democratic nation ever declared war on another democratic nation?

[InvisibleChurch]

I'd heard somewhere that a country that has a democratically elected govt has never attacked another country with a democratically elected govt. Is this so? Or does this all depend on what the meaning of "democratically elected" is?

[freedumb2003]

Wow -- 7 months.

Quite a post delay. Browser problems? ;)

[GatorGirl]

Hitler was democratically elected, so the answer is "yes".

[nasor]

Oh come on, people. You don't have to resort to quibbling over the U.S. civil war to come up with examples of democracies declaring war on other democracies.

England declared war on Finland in 1939 and Syria declared war on Israel in 1973 - all of which were democracies with elected leaders at the time.

That's just two off the top of my head, there are probably others that aren't occurring to me.

[ConservativeMan55]

Pakistan and India!

Both have Mcdonalds!

[Revenge of Sith]

The Britain of 1812 had extremely limited voting rights.

"The last king that believed Britain was a monarchy had the government disagree with him to the point where he lost his head over the issue."

I don't call Oliver Cromwell's regime a democracy.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I would use Argentina fighting Britain over the Falklands in the mid-80's as the ONLY two (legitimately democratic) governments going to war since the War of 1812.

And at that, I'm not altogether sure that the two actually 'declared war" .... More like, the Brit's simply "responded in kind" to the Argentines actual (undeclared) invasion, and neither actually got around to the actual paperwork of "declaring war".

[Robert A Cook PE]

OK, so the South fired on Sumter.

Did the South actually "declare war"?

[Robert A Cook PE]

I'm glad I didn't ask about Olympic game winners or we'd be arguing how fast Testicles ran the 100 yard dash being timed by a sun dial.

You didn't miss much.

The whole Testicles race was a big flop. (He came in the second position, jest behind the other guys who came behind.)

[hosepipe]

Democracy is MOB RULE... therefore the idea is pure bull squeeze... Mob Rule is mostly tribal.. or "gangal" even sophisicated western countrys have "tribes" each neighborhood have a dominate gang.. and a few others.. Nazi's were just a gang.. as is Sharia Law..

Democracy is very primitive.. far beneath the Republic America was designed as.. Canada and URP has not noticed this fact to this day.. They have no idea they are primitive society's.. tribal in essence and Mob Rule in design.. Pity....

[Robert A Cook PE]

Funny thing is, if Hitler did NOT declare war on th US, Churchill and FDR would have had a real hard time trying to figure out a way to actually get the US into a fighting war against Germany.

My guess?

FDR would have "aided Britain in their fight against Japan" .... by reinforcing London and Portsmouth and Gibraltar and Alexandria and Hafia and Malta and Iceland "against Japanese aggression" with American troops, ships, and arms.

[VRWCmember]

That reminds me of a scene from Cheers, when Cliffy says to the British guest (played by John Cleese): "Next time you need help against a major military power like Argentina let us know and we'll bail your butts out of the fire just like we did in the two big ones."

[Alter Kaker]

Any entity in which half the population are disenfranchised slaves cannot be a democracy. Strike the American Civil War from your list.

[Alter Kaker]

Argentina was ruled by General Galtieri's junta in 1982. It only became a democracy subsequent to the Malvinas/Falklands war.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Thank you!

[Robert A Cook PE]

"Next time you need help against a major military power like Argentina let us know and we'll bail your butts out of the fire just like we did in the two big ones."

ya know, the Brit's would have lost 1/3 their fleet to (exploding) Argentine bombs ..... if we had merely told the Argentine Air Force how to fuze the US-porvided bombs for low-level operations.

We er "forgot" to tell them how to do that, (actually, we simply "forgot" to tell the Argentines what the problem was with all their dud bombs when we found they were dropping them from only 50-100 feet altitude) and by doing that, saved the Brit fleet from annihilation.

[patton]

That was a tough spot for the US - greatest ally, UK, violates the monroe doctrine...

[Tijeras_Slim]

That is a good point, thank you.

[RightWhale]

Does your inquiry concern itself with all history?

[InvisibleChurch]

Yes.

[Castlebar]

England declared war on Finland in 1939

Uh.....no......the USSR declared war on Finland in 1939.