I made this page a few years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Angela/Links_study
Updating it for 2010 doesn't provide any evidence that there was a war on external links any time recently. Maybe there was one in 2006?
Total links in the external links section of 8 articles (Russia, marketing, Star Wars, SEO, TVR, medicine, Jewellery, and Tamagotchi):
2010 = 48 2009 = 46 2008 = 40 2007 = 50 2006 = 81 2005 = 51 2004 = 50 2003 = 10 2002 = 2 2001 = 2
Angela