Was having a discussion this morning about which country is the all time worst when it comes to starting wars/poor human rights record/general foul play over history and the like. Japan (over to you kegsy mate) and England seemed to be most popular, and Germany was obviously in there, but is there any statistical proof?

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

Answers

awful people

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

Is it the USA?

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

Definitely the UK. You have to go back a helluva way to come up with a confrontation in which the Brits weren't one of the aggressors, and I reckon it's only cos we won most of them that we've missed out on a lot of condemnation.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

Yugoslavia, South Africa, Ethiopia for internal atrocities, actually China, Vietnam... the list goes on and on....

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

but WHO is the granddaddy of badness?

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

the genocide in Ethiopia is hard to top....

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

...... unfortunately, someone will try.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2001

how prophetic you are clarky...

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2001

Mongols, I would have thought. Or perhaps the Romans. Spartans were a warring nation, who kicked off all over the Med.

Japan has only really got involved in international affairs after the America's gunboat diplomacy forced the opening of their borders. Long memories resulted in Pearl Harbour. Happy to be corrected but Japan's isolationism was partly in defence against the Western opium trade (which prompted the Boxer rebellion in China).

Britain has an impressive record, with the biggest ever land mass empire. But the crown of recent times probably belongs to USA. Who else has used atomic weapons in war?

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2001