America's founding fathers hoped that military adventurism abroad could be restrained through checks on executive power.

But in recent decades, presidents have found legal and political loopholes that allow them to pursue protracted military action abroad.

Before pursuing future or continued military action abroad, US policymakers and attentive citizens need to keep eight principles in mind, writes Eric Reid, the federal executive fellow at the Brookings Foreign Policy program.

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The Founding Fathers had high hopes that military adventurism could be prevented through constitutional checks.

As Alexander Hamilton wrote: "The legislature…will be obliged…every two years, to deliberate upon the propriety of keeping a military force on foot; to come to a new resolution on the point; and to declare their sense of the matter, by a formal vote in the face of their constituents…As often as the question comes forward, the public attention will be roused and attracted to the subject" (emphasis added).

Hamilton was mistaken.

As the US has preserved and expanded its global military posture, post-Cold War presidents of both parties have consistently committed the military abroad in an expanding series of campaigns or other obligations. These endeavors frequently lack a compelling enough relationship to American vital security interests to justify their costs and consequences.

Nonetheless, presidents are politically rewarded by rallying the nation around the flag during military crises, both real and contrived. Likewise, members of Congress perpetually seeking reelection are rewarded for pandering to military forces, veterans, and an influential defense industry.

Admiring a military which they increasingly neither know nor understand, citizens uncritically support overseas uses of American force without demanding meaningful public discourse before the commitment of lives, treasure, and national reputation.

A range of scholars — from economic historian and journalist David Unger to political scientist Andrew Bacevich to journalist James Fallows to policy practitioner Rosa Brooks to many others — caution that our foreign policy has become progressively militarized as Americans have grown apathetic to perpetual overseas campaigns.

The American public has become numb to poorly scrutinized military commitments through two decades of continuous war. Future generations will no doubt think that many of our post-9/11 campaigns were justified, but others were needless or ill-advised. All have been costly.

The United States direly needs a reinvigorated national dialogue between the public and elected officials accountable for national security policy on the appropriate role of military intervention within US foreign policy.

The following eight principles are essential to keep in mind as US policymakers and attentive citizens contemplate future or continued military action abroad.