Propaganda being what it is, it’s the biggest warmongers who litter the pages of the history books. They get the statues, the busts, and the hosannahs.
There are so many examples, but let’s start with the beginning of America’s foray into empire building abroad.
For sure, you’ve heard of the ultra-warmonger Theodore Roosevelt. He was instrumental in letting the American Empire genie out of the bottle.
America would start its policy of foreign military adventurism by picking at the carcass of the Spanish Empire in 1898.
The dreamers of American Empire would start small. They wouldn’t go after the heavyweights right out of the gate.
Cuba would be the first target….a tiny island that’s close to America’s shores. There was virtually nothing the Spanish could do. And no other European nation would come to Spain’s aid.
The foreign policy of peace and non-intervention that America practiced for it’s first century of existence would now be tossed into oblivion.
America would no longer be an example for the world. It would instead seek to dominate the world.
Teddy Roosevelt would write things like: “No triumph of peace is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war.”
Prior to the U.S. intervention, he wrote:
“it is very difficult for me not to wish for a war with Spain, for such a war would result at once in us getting a proper Navy and a good system of coast defense.”
Interesting, isn’t it.
He wanted war, so that he could increase the size of the military.
Sound familiar?
Roosevelt would write in a letter:
“Between ourselves I have been hoping and working ardently to bring about our interference in Cuba.”
Well, Roosevelt and his band of friends got their little war (under false pretenses, as usual) and America hasn’t stopped ever since.
But what about the names that never make it into the history books?
What about the peace-makers?
No hosannah’s for them.
You’ve most likely never heard of Representative David Henderson, a Republican from Iowa during the run-up to the Cuba intervention.
He was one of the voices of reason.
Here were Henderson’s words:
“I have had letters from my people wanting us to take Cuba, to punish Spain. I simply write back that no international law makes the United States the regulator of the wrongs of the earth. God has written no motto on the banner of our country that demands of us the regulating of the wrongs of other countries to their people. We all sympathize with the liberty-loving and fighting Cubans, but they are citizens of another government. So long as that question is before us, I follow the advice of Washington, recommending that we mind strictly our own business.”
Into the dustbin of history…never to be heard of again.
Fortunately, the ideas of peace have not gone anywhere. They still exist, even though no one is ever supposed to consider them.
The ideas of peace are waiting for enough courageous people to once again pick them up.
Are you one of those people?
