I propose the War Amendment to the Constitution

[JackRiddler]

6. The real United States loses every conflict it engages in.

Halliburton and Blackwater and the neocons and the oil companies probably enjoyed Iraq, but the people of this country lost that war by having been involved in it at all.

The price they paid is not as great as that imposed on the people of Iraq, of whom hundreds of thousands died and millions were wounded, displaced, impoverished and poisoned, in our name. But even beyond the moral atrocity of having been involved in crimes against humanity, assuredly the American people won nothing by this war of aggression. They lost a few thousand lives and trillions of dollars in wealth, so that the worst among them could profit.

The United States government shouldn't be starting any conflicts, that is the point. The US military should have the function of defending the United States, for which it needs a budget of about 10 percent of the current amount (at most, unless you think Mexico and Canada pose a threat.) Another 10 percent could be legitimately devoted to emergency response in real disasters.

The rest is imperialism, and it creates the very enemies that we are then told pose the threat against which we go to war.