Brownstein: Bush = Polk, Iraq War = Mexican War:

In the Los Angeles Times, Ronald Brownstein writes: (excerpts)

The president whom George W. Bush may resemble most is ... James K. Polk ...

When Mexico wouldn't sell him the territory, Polk claimed that the border of Texas extended much farther South than when it had been a Mexican state, and provocatively sent U.S. troops to occupy the disputed terrain. Mexico, which had rattled sabers itself, attacked and war began. It didn't end for nearly two years, proving much costlier and bloodier than the president had anticipated.

Among the Whigs most outraged by Polk's conduct was a freshman U.S. House member from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln.   ...   Shortly after taking office ... Lincoln voted for a Whig resolution that charged the president with "unnecessarily and unconstitutionally" initiating the war. To accept Polk's justifications, Lincoln later complained, would be to "allow the president to invade a neighboring nation … whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary."

Bush, like Polk, launched a war whose initial justification has spawned bitter dispute. And, like Polk, Bush has seen that war become more grueling and divisive than he had expected.

What's surprising is that Brownstein omits a very well known remark by president Ulysses Grant (who served in the Mexican War). Grant said the Mexican War was:

"one of the most unjust ever waged on a weaker country by a stronger"

posted by Quiddity at 1/03/2006 12:00:00 PM