Presidents At War
By opting to invade Iraq, George W. Bush was following in the footsteps of history
Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq has been attacked as a departure from the American tradition of war. But it is more of a return to the dominant tradition of our history. The United States has never been an isolationist nation; Americans and American military forces have been roaming the globe since the Revolutionary War. Until the 20th century, the oceans seemed to protect the American homeland from attack, but not always. The White House and the Capitol were burned in 1814, and James K. Polk went to war in 1846 after charging that American forces had been attacked on American soil. In any case, the oceans protect us no more and have not for many years.
Wars are chancy things. The friction of war, as the Prussian military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz wrote, is inevitable and its effects unpredictable. The responsibility for sending men to their deaths has weighed heavily on our commanders in chief. Photographs of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt show how the weight of making such awesome decisions aged these vigorous leaders, just as it has visibly aged George W. Bush over the past five years.
Our system of government gives millions of voters and members of the armed services and thousands of public officials in the legislative and executive branches a role in fighting America's wars. But the most difficult decisions, and the greatest burden of responsibility, have rested on America's presidents, who, relying on imperfect information, must make, and have often made, life-and-death decisions without being able to know for certain what effects they will have.
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