Why America Can't Stop Fighting: The Structural Trap of Endless Wars

For the third time in a generation, the United States has found itself at war in the Middle East — not because its leaders willed it, but because the architecture of American power makes war easy to begin and nearly impossible to end. Structural forces — a president unchecked by Congress, a globe-spanning military presence, a volunteer force that shields most citizens from sacrifice — conspire to pull Washington into conflicts that contradict its own stated strategies. The deeper question is not whether any particular administration wanted this war, but whether a republic can sustain a foreign