Free Republic

The most troubling issues of presidential power involve foreign affairs. America's Founders were determined to limit the power of the federal government, particularly the power of the president, to enter foreign wars. They had lived through an era of endless wars that had destroyed property, caused skyrocketing taxes and inflation as well as killing large numbers of people. The reason the Constitution provided for a congressional declaration of war was to slow down the warmaking process and provide time for rational debate. In an emergency, such as the declaration of war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress showed...

<p>To those who say we should use our military in an effort to overthrow tyrants and promote justice around the world, I would ask: which, if any, wars would you avoid?</p> <p>There are always a lot of tyrants and much injustice in the world, so we're talking about a policy of perpetual war.</p>

These days, anybody who questions U.S. entry into other people's wars is branded as an isolationist, but troubling questions don't go away. The policy that the United States should enter other people's wars and try to build other people's nations goes back to Woodrow Wilson, and my new book reports the horrifying unintended consequences. The book is called WILSON’S WAR, HOW WOODROW WILSON’S GREAT BLUNDER LED TO HITLER, LENIN, STALIN AND WORLD WAR II (Crown Forum / Random House). Many people believe that World War I led to World War II, the assumption being that would have happened no matter...