John – I don’t want to get bogged-down in this either. But, I will throw in a few things I believe to be true. World War I was not really a war we needed to be in. It laid the groundwork for much that has gone wrong in America and the world since then (including World War II). The manner in which the liberal Wilson and liberal intellectuals fomented and exploited war fever in this country remains unprecedented in American history and was, in a great many respects, fascist. If you think McCarthyism was bad, the Red Scare of the Wilson Administration was far worse in almost every respect. The Fourteen Points may have had beneficial consequences for some Europeans, indeed I’m sure it did. But, Wilson himself used them as much as anything else to buy the support of liberals and leftists at home. Napoleon, was hailed as the “great liberator” by much of Europe. Indeed, so was Hitler, at first, by Ukranians eager to get out from under the yoke of Stalin. Wilson wasn’t a Hitler — or a Napoleon — but you can come pretty far short of that standard and still be a bad dude.
Also, I think the rule at National Review is that every time you say something nice about Woodrow Wilson, Charles Kessler drives up to your house, rings the door bell, and leaves a burning paper bag full of dog droppings on your doorstep. So don’t answer the door barefoot.