Biden isn’t the first president to promise never to wage another war of intervention | Simon Jenkins

Military adventurism has long appealed to western politicians – even those who say they will not meddle in others’ affairs

Joe Biden declares an end to “an era of major military operations to remake other countries”. A president’s job, he says, is to protect and defend the “fundamental national security interest of the United States of America”. That does not include trying to construct new nations in foreign states.

Quite so. But Biden isn’t the first president to make such claims. Each of his re...