Which US Wars Were Justified?

[faded glory]

Originally posted by Ramo
Nope, we sent our troops to Mexico first. I don't think the Mexicans even launched a major offensive against the US during the war, though I may be wrong.

Yea you are wrong on this. Remember the Alamo???? SA tried to reclaim texas

It had arms stashed in it...

Well I cant argue with that. But the germans knew it was a passenger liner flying the american flag and sunk it regardless!

[Ramo]

But as I wrote earlier, Polk sent American troops into disputed territory (the Texans claimed it was theirs) to draw Santa Anna into attacking first. It's a convenient propaganda trick.

[Ramo]

Yea you are wrong on this. Remember the Alamo???? SA tried to reclaim texas

The Alamo was part of the War for Texan Independence, not the Mexican War. Two different things. Hell, American troops weren't even involved in the War for Texan Independence.

[faded glory]

Originally posted by Ramo
But as I wrote earlier, Polk sent American troops into disputed territory (the Texans claimed it was theirs) to draw Santa Anna into attacking first. It's a convenient propaganda trick.

Impossible...Texas (not america) bordered Mexico and was an independant nation. The Mexicans had been rattling there sabers about the issue of reclaiming it. If it was as you say Ramo...

Santa Anna mobilized 21,000 men awfully quick

[faded glory]

Originally posted by Ramo


The Alamo was part of the War for Texan Independence, not the Mexican War. Two different things. Hell, American troops weren't even involved in the War for Texan Independence.

Arg...did you just look that at

I had a feeling I was going to make an ass of myself on this thread!

[Ramo]

It is if they allied themselves with the British in the conflict.

Bull. They allied with the Brits because the Americans were stealing their land.

[sachmo71]

The Philippine Insurrection was a guerilla war fought from 1898-1905 and is considered "one of the ugliest wars in American history." After one American regiment was massacred at Samar, the Filipino guerillas stuffed molasses into the disemboweled corpses to attract ants. In response, General Jacob Smith ordered his officers to kill and burn everything they saw, and even told them "the more you kill, the happier I will be." The soldiers burned the villages to the ground, and placed the villagers into "reconcentration" camps, which were similar to the ones in Cuba during the Spanish-American war. Things like famine, brutality, dysentary, and here in the tropical climate of the Philippines...malaria spread like wildfire. Unfortunately, the war never "recivilized" after this point, and atrocities mounted, as guerilla wars often do. Over 5,000 Americans and 200,000 Filipinos died. It did happen.

[chequita guevara]

Revolutions are always justified.

French Naval War was justified, it was a war of self-defence.

Pirate Wars were justified. See above.

I would say the War of 1812 was justified, to a point. The impressment issue as well as the construction of a series of forts by the Brits in the NorthWest Territory necessitated the war. However, the war was also intended to be a war of conquest of Canada, which was totally unjustified.

Meixcan American War was unjustified. The US occupied disputed territory and provoked a fight with Mexican soldiers. We attacked Mexico, then annexed half its territory.

Civil War was justified.

Indian Wars were never justified (by our side), even when individual Indians attacked white settlements. That was a matter for territorial police, not the army.

Spanish American War and Wars of Philippine and Puerto Rican Conquest (generally lumped together as one war). Most unjustified war the US ever fought. Spain had already been defeated by three of the four colonies we had taken from them (Puerto Rico had even had its autonomy recognized by Spain). Steve, what Ramo says about the Philippine War is absolutely true. We killed almost half a million Filipinos taking that country. Entire islands were depopulated. Whole new tortures were invented. It was probably the most dispicable act of the US.

WWI, unjustified.

Russian intervention, unjustified.

Latin American invasions, unjustifed.

WWII, unjustified.

Korea, we had no business being there in the first place, let alone foisting a dictatorship on the South against the will of the Korean people. We certainly had no business being involved in the civil war of another nation.

Vietnam, unjustified, see above.

Gulf, unjustified, we have no business propping up vicisous ME kingdoms which practice slavery.

Kosovo, unjustified, we have no business telling a country it can't fight domestic terrorism. Since we ultimately agreed to Milosevic's original conditions (even though we subsequently violated the agreement), not only was the war unjustified, it was totally pointless and caused more misery than it prevented.

Current war, justified so far, though execution leaves something to be desired.

[Seeker]

How can you say world war II was unjustified!!?

Even if FDR knew about Pearl Harbour, fighting against Nazi Germany was the right thing to do, absolutely.

And Korea...what was the UN supposed to do? Just allow a small people to be overpowered by a larger?

Canadian forts: This 'provocation' was designed to allow Canada to protect the border and co-ordinate with the native allies...it is hard to see how defensive measures can be considered a provocation to attack...

otherwise I agree.

[sachmo71]

Bah, many of you are thinking like 21st century folk! Imperialism was THE justification for many of the wars around the world, as well you know. That includes the Indian wars! In hindsite, they were nothing more than a series of atrocities, but the US government believed that they were justified, AND they wanted the land. It sucks, it was a slaughter, but they were justified.

[uh Clem]

the germans knew it was a passenger liner flying the american flag

...NOT!

Lusitania was British.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Seeker
How can you say world war II was unjustified!!?

Even if FDR knew about Pearl Harbour, fighting against Nazi Germany was the right thing to do, absolutely.

It was a war between imperialisms. What differentiated Hitler's regime from the other imperialist powers is he did what they had always done to colonial peoples, but he did it to white people. What Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium did in Africa (as well as what the US did to the Indians and the Filipinos) was just as horrible and on the same scale as what Hitler did in Europe.

And Korea...what was the UN supposed to do? Just allow a small people to be overpowered by a larger?

South Korea was created by the US by conquering the southern part of Korea and foisting a government made up of former collaborators with the Japanese and Korean fascists. The Northern government was the original government of all of Korea. You may not like the DPRK government, but it was the legitimate government of Korea and the Korean war was a civil war between one nation with two states. Yes, the US (with its UN fig leaf) should have sayed out of it from the begining.

Canadian forts: This 'provocation' was designed to allow Canada to protect the border and co-ordinate with the native allies...it is hard to see how defensive measures can be considered a provocation to attack...

The forts in Canada weren't a problem. It was the British forts built within the territory of the US that were a problem.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Revolutions are always justified.
.
.
.
Civil War was justified.

Aren't these two statements contradicting one another? If the US had the right to break away from Britain, why didn't the Confederacy have the right to break away from the Union?

[chequita guevara]

The Southern cecession wasn't a revolution.

I'll go you one further. There was a revolution, but it was in the North. The Civil War was a revolution of the Northern bourgesoisie against the Southern slave aristocracy.

[SilexMT]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The Southern cecession wasn't a revolution.

It was a war of independence: that's ore or less what secession means, right? (I'm sure that that's the name it would bear in history books if the south had won)

Then again, the american revolution was actually a war of independance too: a true revolution is when the people overthrow their own government, and is way much harder to accomplish than for a overseas colony to gain its independence. But 'revolution' sounds so much more glamorous....