Throughout the course of history, the United States has entered a multitude of conflicts. Some necessary, yet others controversial. The United States went to war in 1917 to combat an evil force that was bullying all of mankind. Almost an entire century later, we were back at war to combat a cancer that was a threat to the existence of mankind. Nothing changed with the American policy. America was and still is a world power, and America's job is to bring peace and stability to the world. Much criticism was placed on the Bush Administration for invading Iraq. But America went into the country for humanitarian reasons. The country was a threat to the existence of planet Earth. One century earlier, America entered World War I for humanitarian reasons. The causes and consequences of World War I are related to those of the Iraq War because each war was entered due to humanitarian reasons, both were entered in retaliation to attacks on American assets and both ended in America providing a safe and democratic environment for people to reestablish themselves in.
While war was tearing Europe apart seam by seam, America stood by watching and observing. President Wilson felt that America was not under attack from the German forces, so he therefore did not entitled to declare war on Germany. But as the war dragged on, Wilson realized the war crimes that Germany was committing. In 1914, Germany invaded Belgium, who at the time, was a neutral state. While in Belgium, Germany committed war crimes and atrocities. People were being maimed left and right in the name of war "tactics." The German's used schrecklichkeit, or frightfulness to get the Belgian people to comply to their demands. People were threatened and terrorised into submission, against their will and freedoms. Thousands of people died in the struggle against Germany, and Woodrow Wilson felt obligated to help the defenseless country.