Bush advisor Richard Perle is now quoting the 'democratic peace' theory, the same incidentally that Thatcher used to justify the Falklands war.

 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=55493&group=webcast

The 'theory' is that democracies wage no wars, except in self-defence. It is pure propaganda, democratic states are unusually agressive. One reason for that is their crusader mentality - they want to bring democracy to other countries, by force if necessary. Another reason is that the western democracies are often colonial powers, some still have colonies, and they fight neo-colonial wars.

So is Britain more peaceful than Saddam's Iraq? This list is originally from the website 'Britains Small Wars'

 http://www.britains-smallwars.com/main/index1.html

although not all of these wars were 'small'. Like the United States, democractic Britain is in a near-permanent state of war.

1945-48 India Decolonisation and Partition
1945-48 Palestine
1945-46 Dutch East Indies Restoring Dutch Colonial rule
1946 H.M.S. Volage hit by mines off Albania
1946-48 Greece Supporting Gov. forces during Civil War
1947 Aden Riots
1948 Gold Coast Riots, British Honduras
1948-60 Malaya Emergency
1948-1951 Eritrea (Operations against Shifta Terrorists)
1949 Akaba Threat of Israeli Invasion
1950 Singapore (Hartog riots)
1950-53 Korean War
1951 Akaba (Moussadeq Oil Nationalization)
1951-54 Suez Canal Zone
1952-56 Kenya, Operations against the Mau Mau
1953 British Guiana
1954-83 Cyprus
1955 Singapore Riots, Buraimi Oasis operations
1956 Bahrain riots, Hong Kong riots, Singapore riots, Suez operations, Clash on Yemenis Border
1957 British Honduras, Yemeni border clash
1957-59 Muscat and Oman
1958 Nassau strike, Jordan/Lebanon intervention, State of emergency declared in Aden, Nyasaland (Malawi) Riots
1959 Gan riots
1960 Jamaica
1961 Kuwait, Zanzibar
1962 British Honduras, British Guiana, Aden riots, Brunei
1963 Swaziland, Zanzibar, Aden
1963-66 Borneo
1964 Zanzibar revolution, Tuanganyika Army mutiny, Uganda Army mutiny, Kenya Army mutiny , British Guiana, civil
unrest
1964-67 Aden and Radfan
1965 Mauritius, Bechuanaland
1966 Hong Kong riots, Das Island, Seychelles
1967 Hong Kong riots
1968 Bermuda & Mauritius State of Emergency
1968-69 Antigua Civil unrest
1969 Anguilla March to September. So called Upraising
1969-84 Northern Ireland
1970 Cayman Islands April Demonstrations against Colonial administration
1971 Pakistan - Refugee evacuation
1970-76 Dhofar
1973 Bermuda
1979 Iran - Evacuation of civilians
1979-84 Operation Agila Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
1980 New Hebrides - Civil unrest
1982 Falklands War
1983 Beirut
1983 Aden - Evacuation of British Nationals (civil war)
1987-88 Gulf - Mine sweeping / clearance
1991 Persian Gulf War
1991 Kurdistan Humanitarian Relief
1991-? N Iraq - Northern 'No fly' Zone
1991-? S Iraq Southern 'No fly' Zone
1992 onwards Bosnia
1994 Yemen - Evacuation of various embassy staffs
1997 Congo - Evacuation British nationals (civil unrest)
1998 Congo - Evacuation British nationals (civil war)
1999-? Kosovo- NATO peacekeeping
2000 East Timor - UN peacekeeping
2000 Sierra Leone
2001 Macedonia - Disarming fighting factions


For more comments on the 'democratic peace' theory see the website...