Reply #86: as was stated in an earlier post...

[wyldwolf]

There are probably only two instances in American history (post the Revolution) where the US truly went to war as a last resort:

1. The Civil War, which had been brewing for two decades, and in which we actually fought against ourselves, and

2. World War II, which had been ongoing since 1938 in Europe, earlier still in the Pacific, in which Britain was begging us to join, and in which both of our chief adversaries both declared war on us first. Of course, FDR - the Democrat's Democrat - was interested in getting into the war far before most of the rest of the country.

Other wars and military entanglements - most of which were waged by Democrats - were never entered into as "the last resort."

Woodrow Wilson’s invasion of Mexico, US sabotage of Italian elections under Truman, Truman's involvement in Korea, Kennedy’s attacks on Cuba, Kennedy's and Johnson's Viet Nam war, and Clinton's peacekeeping missions in such places as Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia.

Our actions in these were never "the last resort."

So, perhaps there has been a low lying "last resort" philosophy among some Democrats, but it has seldom been put into practice.

As for Kerry, consider his 2003 address to the Council on Foreign Relations where he endorsed a “new progressive internationalism” buttressed by renewed alliance and enforced by a dominant US military.

Kerry’s “new” foreign policy has its roots in a policy paper entitled, “Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy.” Yep! DLC.

AND an almost exact replica of Woodrow Wilson's Liberal Internationalism - advocated by every Democratic president since.