WWI—a Mistake for America?

The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison profiles America’s Habit of Fighting Unnecessary Wars. Daniel concentrates specifically on America’s WWI experience.

WWI was a war in which the U.S. and its allies forced their enemies to give up and sign humiliating treaties. If the peace was lost, that was in no small part due to the nature of the peace imposed on the defeated parties. The problem wasn’t that the U.S. left after the war had ended, but that the U.S. helped the Allies to achieve a victory that they exploited as vengefully as possible. The mistake, as usual, was the decision to enter a war that the U.S. could have avoided.