The only reason Wilson got the U.S. involved in the war is because he wanted a seat at the negotiating table at the peace conference. If that's not bad enough, the fact that he did such an abysmal job at the conference further means that the 50,000+ American deaths in the war were needless.
That's an inflammatory, skewed, revisionist exaggeration. Furthermore, this:
Of course, that's all moot. The Allies would have won the war without the U.S. entry anyway. It would probably have taken longer, but the Central Powers simply could not win that war.
contradicts what you quoted from
Ivan Eland:
Even in the twenty-first century, people are still losing their lives in conflicts (for example, in Iraq) indirectly generated by the United States entry into World War I.
Not having read Dr. Eland's book, I cannot say why what you quoted from him is so hyperbolic and absurd, why it smacks of propaganda, and why it fails to acknowledge officially stated reasons for entering the war, such as the fact that Germany had begun "unrestricted submarine warfare" in the Atlantic, and in the process of the submarine campaign had been killing innocent American citizens and disrupting international commerce, and such as the fact that Wilson came to believe that Germany posed a threat to Western civilization as a whole. Given what happened up until 1945, I'd say Wilson had a point.
---
My list is restricted to
modern presidents, because I do not believe we can fairly compare what happened too long ago with what is happening now. Ultimately whatever "damage" has been done in the past becomes our responsibility to fix, or collectively
we deserve blame for failure.
I pick three in
chronological order.
Harry S. Truman (#33) = Solely because he
pushed for what became the unconstitutional precedent of a
police action, by which presidents have since come to believe that they may field armies for the purpose of military action without a formal Declaration of War by Congress.
Remarks: Congress itself must shoulder an even larger responsibility here. For, their responsibility is to assert the powers granted them and take their responsibilities, as outlined by the Constitution. So, it's really Congress that's fallen down on the job on this score. But presidents do push for things, and so what they push for is a fair criterion for judging them good or bad. Given the power the U.S. wields, this unconstitutional abdication of responsibility is practically criminal.
Richard M. Nixon (#37) = Solely because he was the only president to
resign, and he resigned to avoid an impeachment trial for alleged criminal activity, for which he was later pardoned.
George W. Bush (#43) = For warmongering, for fear mongering, for encouraging gross fiscal negligence, for contributing to the creation of challenges that will greatly test our ability to overcome, for the harm inflicted by us upon the people of other nations, in the best light being grossly disproportionate to the harm done to us, and for otherwise succumbing to the lesser demons of our nature during a pivotal time in American and World History, and for encouraging the same in others by example.
) I'll say this....
