After listening, tonight, to the radio announcer talk about the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by wars in Iraq, those directly and indirectly caused by U.S. invasions since 1991, it is disconcerting how psychically removed, by and large, our nation has been from the wars as well as from the poor policy choices made in our name, as though we cannot be bothered to do something about it, like at least vote out imperialist politicians. All of which makes William Jennings Bryan's standoff with President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 all the more remarkable. Bryan, a former three-time Democratic Party presidential standard bearer, became Wilson's Secretary of State. To make a long story short (since we don't have time for a long essay at this time), Wilson wanted to take a confrontational stance and defy the Kaiser's declaration that the British Isles were a war zone, whereas Bryan wanted to maintain strict neutrality in the matter of the European war. Wilson, as president, ...