A Curated List of Wars Beginning with the Year Barry McGuire Released “Eve of Destruction”
1965: India-Pakistan, Vietnam, ongoing. 1966: Congo, mutinies begin. 1967: Israel, The Six-Day War, borders still unresolved. 1968: 
Czechoslovakia invaded by Warsaw Pact countries, Vietnam, Tet Offensive. 1969: China-USSR after the Sino-Soviet split. 1970: Jordan, Black September civil war, bullets loading. 1971: India-Pakistan, again. 1972: Vietnam, Nixon orders massive bombing. 1973: Yom Kippur War aka Ramadan War, da doo ron ron. 1974: Cyprus invaded by Turkey, Kurds-Iraq encore war. 1975: Angola, Western Sahara, Lebanon. 1976: The Dirty War in Argentina, the left wing feared, the disappeared. 1977: Libya-Egypt, Somalia-Ethiopia, the U.S. and Soviets switch team allegiances. 1978: Uganda-Tanzania, Libya-Chad, Kurds-Turkey, ongoing, what’s that gun you’re totin’. 1979: Soviets deploy to Afghanistan, interminable. 1980: Salvador, Peru, Iran-Iraq. 1981: Peru-Ecuador. 1982: Falklands. 1983: Grenada invaded, island of nutmeg and mace. 1984: India-Pakistan over Siachen Glacier region, If the button is pushed, there’s no running away. 1985: Burkina Faso-Mali, again. 1986: U.S. bombs Libya. 1987: Intifada, ongoing. 1988: Azerbaijan-Armenians, doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang. 1989: Invasion of Panama. 1990: Gulf War, invasion of Kuwait, Desert Shield and Storm. 1991: Slovenia, Croatia. 1992: Bosnia, Afghanistan, again. 1993: Hutu-Tutsi tribal war after multi-party elections in Burundi. 1994: Kurds-Iraq encore war, Chechnya. 1995: ongoing. 1996: Afghanistan, civil war, again. 1997: Congo, Cambodia, again. 1998: Kosovo, Congo, again. 1999: Chechnya, again. 2000: Rwanda Six-Day War, same dates in June as the other one, shoo-be-doo-be-doo-da-day. 2001: Afghanistan, ongoing. 2002: Horn of Africa, Philippines, ongoing. 2003: Iraq, ongoing, Darfur. 2004: North-West Pakistan, ongoing. 2005: Chad begins, Burundi ends. 2006: Lebanon. 2007: Operation Enduring Freedom, Trans-Saharan. 2008: Gaza, again, the world in a grave. 2009: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, thousands flee. 2010: Burma’s internal skirmishes. 2011: Syria, ongoing. 2012: Northern Mali, Congo M23 again, ongoing. Again. Ongoing. And today at Columbus Circle a disheveled man is screaming: “The Alamo! The Alamo!”
Susana H. Case is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology. She is the author of: Salem In Séance (WordTech Editions), Elvis Presley’s Hips & Mick Jagger’s Lips (Anaphora Literary Press) and 4 Rms w Vu (Mayapple Press, forthcoming in 2014). Please visit her online at: http://iris.nyit.edu/~shcase/.
