unprecedented? lol
how about when we invaded hawaii? we've been involved in fighting all around the world for many many years, *****, often without an official declaration of war.
There are many examples of military actions undertaken by the United States without a declaration of war. Not once did the United States declare war on any of the American Indian tribes. When Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines to North Africa, in 1801, he did so with Congressional authorization but without a formal declaration of war. U.S. troops occupied various parts of Latin America on numerous occasions without a war declaration. The U.S. even sent troops to play limited roles in the Mexican and Russian Revolutions of the early 1900s. Yet one example shows in stark detail how long the United States has played the game of undeclared war -- the Philippine-American War (or more accurately, "War") of 1899-1913. This episode saw the deaths of around 5,000 U.S. soldiers while the formally declared Spanish-American War claimed fewer. 15-20,000 Filipino combatants died, along with an unknown number of civilians (perhaps 250,000). The Philippines foreshadowed many of the Americans' numerous engagements of the modern era.