The Mexican-American War was a land grab, and you know what we got: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and much more, including parts of Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming. All of that was previously Mexico. Can you imagine? The war was provoked by a border skirmish in which they said we infringed, and we said they did. Mexico ended up losing 55% of its territory. Can you imagine? Future President Ulysses Grant called the was "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker one."
Hawaii we just plain stole. Queen Liliulokalini of Kingdom of Hawaii was told that we can do this the easy way or the hard way, but, like it not, you are becoming part of the United States of America. And she went along with it just to save Hawaiian lives.
The Spanish-American War was also a land grab, and you know about all the territories we got from it in the Caribbean and the Pacific, including the Philippines. And it is widely recognized today by military historians, ship experts, and others that Spain did not blow up the Maine. Most say that it was a spontaneous explosion due to internal conditions on the boat and not an act of sabotage. I don't have the knowledge to have an opinion about that, but I have no trouble believing that Spain didn't do it.
World War 1: Woodrow was itching to get into it. The Germans took out full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers saying that they had no quarrel with us and did not want war with us, but if we sent munitions to Britain, that they'd have to blow up whatever ship they were on. Wilson deliberately had the Luistania stocked with munitions bound for England in the hope that Germany would fulfill its promise, and they did. The Germans should have been smart and ignored it. But, the point is that it was a direct provocation by Wilson designed to whip up support among the American public to enter World War 1. And really, it was such a catastrophe for humankind because there was no reason for any of it. One guy gets killed in Sarajevo, and the whole world goes to war? At the end of the day, we're all just human beings. No one is better than any one else. His life was no more valuable and no more important than any one else's. But because of him, tens of millions of people had to die? It's insane. And Woodrow Wilson? That stuffy bookworm from Princeton was just itching to play Commander in Chief.
World War 2: I don't claim that war with Hitler could have been avoided because even before he invaded Poland in 1939, he had already annexed Austria and most of Czechoslovakia. So, he was on a tear. But, I do believe very strongly that war between the United States and Japan could have been avoided. We were already practicing economic warfare against them, ordering countries not to sell them oil, which is the reverse of today where we are ordering countries not to buy oil from Iran. We froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. We demanded that they liberate all their territories in the Pacific outside of Japan, even though we weren't liberating ours or asking others to. And about Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt deliberately moved the 6th Fleet from San Pedro Harbor to Pearl Harbor just to provoke the Japanese to attack. Read: Day of Deceit, The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor by Robert Stinnett.
The Korean War: My point man on that is Professor John Quigley of UC Berkeley who, in Ruses for War, makes the case that South Korea (our proxies) attacked North Korea, and not vice versa. He devotes the first 100 pages of the book to arguing that, and it's convincing. And Quigley isn't the only one who says it. Professor Mark Caprio of Rikkyo University in Tokyo says the same thing. Three million people died in the Korean War.
With the Vietnam War, LBJ lied us into it over the Gulf of Tonkin incident where an engagement was conjured up out of thin air. The truth was the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy were involved in aggressive intelligence gathering to support the South Vietnamese who were bombarding the North, and after a brief engagement that resulted in no harm or casualties to either vessel, we claimed there was another attack by the North Vietnamese in international waters which never occurred. So, Johnson lied us into a war that got 58,000 Americans killed and over 3 million Southeast Asians.
So, my question is: Why is the Johnson Space Center in Houston still called the Johnson Space Center?
Invading Afghanistan was based on our presumed right to acquire Osama bin laden for planning the 9/11 attacks. I look to the 3000+ architects and engineers who say that the 9/11 towers were imploded, which OBL could not have done. But, I say that even if he had done it, that it wasn't right to start a war over one guy which has raged on now for 18 years, with no end in sight, and which has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and over two thousand Americans. And believe me, all the hoopla about the recent negotiations with the Taliban is just spin. The Taliban will never recognize, accept, or work with the current Afghan government. They have made that crystal clear. So, unless you think the U.S. is going to renounce the current Afghan government, there is no reason to think that a peaceful settlement is anywhere in reach, and I say that with regret.
Invading Iraq, of course, was based on lies. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, etc. The 12,000 page document he submitted to the UN, which Colin Powell denounced to the world, was essentially true. Saddam was a bad guy; I'm no fan of him or any other strong arm dictator. But if you asked some Iraqi widow who besides losing her husband also lost her sons in the war whether she'd put up with Saddam again if she could have her family back, I'm sure she'd tell you that she'd put up with him for a thousand years.
Look, this Memorial Day, instead of the usual fanfare, how about if we all really try to prevent another unnecessary war? This is the situation: This is Iran, and these are all the U.S. military installations surrounding Iran:
I am pretty sure they don't want a war with us. I am pretty sure that they are not a threat to us, that we don't need to have a war to prevent them from hurting us. We have let our political and military leaders, and our media, manipulate us into unnecessary wars many, many times. Could we please not do it again? Could we please just say no this time? ...as in "Hell No! We won't go!"
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