Overview
What happens when a candidate promises peace and then delivers war? In this video, John Stossel traces a striking pattern: every president from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump campaigned against foreign wars, yet each one committed American forces to military action abroad. Drawing on a column by journalist Matt Taibbi, Stossel asks why the promises so rarely match the results, and points students back to a warning George Washington gave in his 1796 Farewell Address.

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Lesson Insights

Grade level and subjects
• Recommended for grades 6-12
• Subjects: Government, History
• Works in Classroom, Hybrid, and Homeschool settings

What students will learn
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• recount how each president from Clinton to Trump campaigned on peace yet committed United States forces to military action abroad;
• trace the chain of events that turned an antiwar campaign promise into a foreign military intervention;
• contrast the war powers the Constitution gives Congress with the way modern presidents have committed troops; and
• assess whether George Washington’s Farewell Address warning against permanent foreign alliances still applies to United States foreign policy today.

Key concepts and terms covered
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Blowback, Campaign Promise, Diplomacy, Farewell Address, Foreign Entanglements, Foreign Policy, Interventionism, Nobel Peace Prize, Non-Interventionism, Unintended Consequence, War Powers (Article I, Section 8), and War Powers Resolution of 1973.

Sample discussion questions
• What did both Biden and Trump promise about foreign wars?
• Politicians usually want more power. Why would Congress hand its war power to presidents?
• Who pays for a war, and who decides to start one? Are they the same people?
• Five presidents, two parties, same result. What does that pattern rule out as the explanation?
• Make the strongest case for intervention that the video leaves out.

What’s in the free teacher’s guide
This printable 28-page Teacher’s Guide includes a lesson description, learning objectives, key vocabulary, a fill-in viewing guide with answer key, discussion and analysis questions, classroom activities, and the full video transcript.

Related resources
• Both Sides: Foreign Policy — A Both Sides of the Issue pairing that answers this lesson’s central question both ways. “The Danger of American Isolationism” argues that American engagement abroad keeps the peace, and “War, What Is It Good For?” argues the opposite. Discussion questions are included.
• Both Sides: War with Iran? — The June 2025 pairing, made when the strikes on Iran were new. Vice President Vance says “we’re not at war with Iran,” while the second video covers a congressional resolution to rein in the President’s war powers. It asks whether the President had the authority to order the attack or whether that authority belongs to Congress. Includes a MiniGuide with discussion questions.
• Both Sides: War with Iran Revisited — The March 2026 follow-up to the pairing above. John Bolton and Representative Thomas Massie disagree about the February 2026 airstrikes, including whether the President had the constitutional authority to order them. Assign both pairings and have students track what changed between them, and what did not.