# Can I legally invade another country?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 9, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282 "2004-02-09T15:41:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/21 "2004-02-10T02:47:09Z")
> [@dutchboy208](#):
>
> No we aren’t. Read my posts.
You’ve confused me. What am I looking for?
If you’re talking about **BobT** citation of T 18, P 1, Ch 45, Sec. 960, it seems pretty straightforward to me. Launch a campaign against a government with whom we’re at peace, and you get the clink for three years.
What am I missing?
Tripler
😕
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/22 "2004-02-10T03:18:54Z")
Aside from BobT’s helpful cite, I might note that the Neutrality Act of 1818 was passed to curb the sort of filibustering expeditions mentioned by Boasda diChi de Tricor. At least that’s my understanding from my history book and the web.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/23 "2004-02-10T03:34:53Z")
> [@Tripler](#):
>
> You’ve confused me. What am I looking for?
>
> If you’re talking about **BobT** citation of T 18, P 1, Ch 45, Sec. 960, it seems pretty straightforward to me. Launch a campaign against a government with whom we’re at peace, and you get the clink for three years.
>
> What am I missing?
>
> Tripler
> 😕
No I was saying that I’d already pointed out that a coup d’etat wasn’t likely to succeed without that backing of the US government.
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### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/24 "2004-02-10T04:25:03Z")
> [@dutchboy208](#):
>
> No I was saying that I’d already pointed out that a coup d’etat wasn’t likely to succeed without that backing of the US government.
Ah, gotcha.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/25 "2004-02-10T04:39:36Z")
Perhaps the most successful filibuster was an American named William Walker who invaded Nicaragua in 1855 in support of one side of a civil war. He actually managed to take over the country and lasted about a year or so. He tried again in Honduras in 1860, but was a dismal failure (being executed by firing squad constitutes “dismal failure”, I think).
And as for the origin of _filibuster_, it comes from a Spanish word meaning “freebooter”. The political maneuver is derived from that meaning.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-legally-invade-another-country/228282/26 "2004-02-10T04:47:06Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> I’m a little surprised by this raise-a-private-army action being called ‘filibustering’. I thought ‘filibustering’ was the act of obstructing proceedings in Parliament or Congress, by blathering on and on and on about all kinds of nonsense, and thus preventing undesired parts of the agenda from happening?
Orginally the word comes from Spanish _filibustero_, which was altered from the Dutch word _vrijbuiter_, i.e. freebooter, in other words, a pirate.
The Philippine patriot José Rizal wrote a novel titled _El Filibusterismo_ to protest the Spanish rule of his country.
Florida was wrested from Spain by gringo filibusteros who went in there and pretty much took it over as described in the OP. Then they arranged for the U.S. government to annex it.
Ditto for Texas and California, although those didn’t come so easily. Had to fight a war first.
Aaron Burr was going to go filibuster himself a private empire from Spanish America, but he was “busted” (so to speak) before he could set out.
William Walker pulled this stunt in Central America twice, but the second time the natives were fed up with him and killed him.
Hawaii was the US’s last acquisition by something resembling a filibuster, though the gringos there pulled it off without shooting.
The application of this word to Congressional blowhards is a really loose use of the word in the sense of “hijack”. Hijacking the debate like a pirate hijacks a ship. Or a country.
R. Buckminster Fuller’s theory of world history was that the real powers that controlled the world were not the kings, emperors, and presidents. The real rulers were the “Great Pirates.” They were the only ones with a comprehensive knowledge of navigation, military technology, and geography. World War I finished them off, and since then, nobody has known how to make the world work. The nominal rulers that are left sure don’t.
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