The 'Gringo Empire' as Role Model & The 'Moral Low Ground'

In the book 'Wetback Nation - the case for Opening the Mexican-American Border' - (2004) - by Peter Laufer, the author writes,

"...few Gringos think of their lands from Texas to California as conquered territory. Such selective memory allowed President Clinton to declare..."

'Americans never fought for empire, for territory, for dominance.' --***

"...In fact that's exactly what Americans fought for when they invaded Mexico in 1846. In his book The Annexation of Mexico, the American journalist John Ross, who has been reporting from Mexico for over a generation, suggests that Walt Whitman's commentary in the Brooklyn Eagle sums up American public opinion at the time: 'Miserable, inefficient Mexico. What has she to do with the great mission of peopling the New World with a noble race? Be it ours to achieve this mission!..."

"...In addition to the fight along the Texas border, (President) Polk dispatched troops to seize Mexico's northwest--the land from New Mexico out to California..."

"It was a war 'unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States', according to a house resolution passed 85 - 81 just before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, ceding half of Mexico to the United States."

"Mexicans agreed to the bad deal and remember it well."

Mr Ken notes that least President Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico, and after a brief debate it did. The last time a president asked Congress for a declaration of war was on June 5, 1942 (against Bulgaria, Hungary & Romania).***

Our new 21st Century 'imperial president' sends troops wherever he wants by lying to Congress about the reasons for waging war, and misinforming and bullying the 'lapdog' Main Stream Media. Our new 'emperor' enforces only the laws he approves of, suspends Habeas Corpus at will, and presumes to tell other nations what kind of weapons they may develop.

To paraphase President Clinton on Larry King Live (9/20/06),

"Because of what the U.S. has done around the world in the last 5 years (preventative wars, withdrawing from international treaties, torture as official policy), the only argument the U.S. has when it orders Iran to forego nuclear weapons is-- 'we think that you are bad and we are good, so you cannot have nuclear weapons'. The U.S. no longer has the moral high ground, because of what the administration has been doing."

At least our former president can recall recent history, even though he may have slept through 'History of the American West 101' class...


***President Bill Clinton at the Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetary

***After World War II, Congress voluntarily limited its use of the power to declare war to issuing authorizations of force. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (Pub.L. 93-148) limits the power of the President to wage war without the approval of the Congress. The United States has formally declared war against foreign nations eleven separate times. Curtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States