the United States used to impose war taxes and these war taxes not only paid for the war

but gave individuals a connection with the war to understand that these wars were going on

and that they you couldn't do them on the cheap that everyone sort of paid the cost for them

even if you weren't sent to the front lines and so now we just borrow the sort of how how we envision

kind of a democratic society is that there should be debate about going into war and expending American blood and treasure

in the service of national security. And if those debates aren't taking place, then the

worry is that you can either get into conflicts that might not be in the national interest

or that might continue much longer than the national interest would advise.

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI.

And in this episode, Major Jake Moraldi sits down for a conversation with Dr. Sarah Kreps.

She's an associate professor

of government and adjunct professor of law at Cornell University, but we're thrilled

that she's also an adjunct scholar at MWI because she's conducted some important and

really impactful research on a range of topics relevant to the conduct of war today and in the

future. One of the questions her research aims to address is sort of how countries go to war.

And that's what she discusses in this episode.

Really quickly, before we get to that, we've got to ask for some help from you, the listeners.

In most episodes, we ask that if you're enjoying the podcast, you could leave us a review

or a rating on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcast. Lots of you have done so, and we're really,

really grateful. And we get it. Most of you are probably listening right now in your car, on a

train, during a run, not sitting at your computer. But if you do get just a free moment or two,

...