America from Republic into Empire when? Thoreau answered 175 years ago-Danny Sjursen-ret. Army Major

Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience” in the jail he suffered at for failure to comply with a tax funding our U.S. Republic’s first imperialist invasion toppling a foreign regime.Show more

Waged 175 years ago against a flawed but fellow republic, this aggressive intervention against Mexico was built on lies launched from the White House by a hawkish ideologue. The service and sacrifices of the troops were trotted-out to rally patriots, raise recruits, and police dissent. It turned out to be a bloody mess, provoking resistance, and guerrilla war among the occupied populace. Sound familiar?

The war was also a proving ground for the generals who would lead armies on both sides of the American Civil War, was a crucible for past, present, and future U.S. presidents, and an early rehearsal of foreign policy scripts Washington would repeatedly rehash for the next two centuries—scripts still on a prolonged revival tour today. One prominent veteran—who straddled the military and presidential legacies of the Mexican War—Ulysses S. Grant, later wrote "I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico. I thought so at the time...only I had not moral courage enough to resign.” Major Sjursen explains why the war so haunted future President Grant, and why more Americans should know that it did!