Mr Netanyahu's strategic blindness has failed to check war-hardened Hezbollah's missile build-up in southern Lebanon, now estimated at 130,000 rockets, all aimed at Israeli cities.
Now, though, as Republicans grapple in earnest with nominee selection and President Obama rolls out his first campaign ads, the fact-check war is entering a new phase.
Ever since she cast the only vote against a blank-check war resolution, three days after 9/11, the progressive Democrat from Oakland, California, has earned a reputation for bravely speaking antiwar truth to militarist power.
The greatest check against war is the horror of war itself.
When I cast my lone vote against authorizing a blank check for war, I was concerned that it had opened the door to war without end.
"The truth is, the judgment of Hillary Clinton and John McCain gave George Bush a blank check for war," Mr. Obama said.
Global population finally reached a billion around 1800, just a couple of years after Thomas Malthus published his famous essay warning that human numbers would always be held in check by war, pestilence, or "inevitable famine".
The track record shows that a blank check for war is an invitation to abuse.
"We cannot write another blank check for war, as was unfortunately the case under previous presidents and previous congresses for previous conflicts," Coons said in a statement this week.
Rep. Barbara Lee of California and Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan have spearheaded legislation to repeal the AUMF, which they say is a "blank check for war – plain and simple," but it so far it hasn't been successful.
All Americans -- but especially Democrats -- who oppose a blank check for war should be outraged but not surprised by the Administration's demand for an ISIS AUMF that does not bar the use of U.S. ground troops for offensive combat, does not have geographic limits and does not limit targets to ISIS and associated groups.
