The United States has conducted five wars: the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Each of these conflicts ensued after foreign powers acted violently toward American citizens or their property. Because of these wars, the invasion of Iraq has precedent. Iraq's relationship with the United States has paralleled past conflicts against America: violence toward America followed by American retaliation.
Preceding the War of 1812, the British navy impressed seafaring, British citizens for the war with France. The English occasionally impressed American citizens into service. This subjugation of United States citizens and invasion of its ocean vessels, simultaneous with British-stimulated trade and land problems, eventually caused the United States to declare war on the British empire.
The Mexican-American War occurred over property ownership, more specifically the southern tip of Texas. Originally, Texas was part of Mexico, but the discontent populace rebelled, forming its own government in 1836. Texas became the 28th state of the Union in 1845. Desiring to keep the lost territory unstable for the sake of later reclamation, Mexico commenced hostile activity north of the Rio Grande. The United States responded with a declaration of war in 1846.
The third war waged by the United States was the Spanish-American War. A civil war raged in the Caribbean nation of Cuba. To protect American citizens and their property around the Havanna area, the U. S. S. Maine was dispatched to Cuba. While in Havanna's port, an explosion ripped through the vessel, killing over 260 American crewmen. Spain immediately claimed that the explosion came from within the vessel, but an American naval court reported that a submarine mine caused the detonation. Despite these discrepancies, the untimely death of American citizens and danger of property invasion drove the United States into war with Spain.
The American coals of World War I flared in the spring of 1915 when a German submarine sunk the luxury liner Lusitania, ending the lives of over 1,000 men, women, and children, including some one hundred Americans. The start of the war came still closer in early 1917. The foreign secretary of Germany, Arthur Zimmerman, sent a note to Mexico. Intercepted by British agents and forwarded to the United States, the note requested Mexican assistance in the war. It outlined that, if Mexico became their ally, Germany would in turn reward them the “lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.” Zimmerman's note, coupled with the sinking of multiple unarmed American merchant ships by the Germans, sealed the fate of American involvement in the war. The United States officially declared war upon Germany on April 6, 1917.
As in the two previous wars, incidents of violence against American lives and property brought the United States into World War II. During the summer of 1937, the empire of Japan bombed and destroyed the American gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River. Although destruction of American property had provided enough reason for declaring war, the United States continued to procrastinate until the morning of December 7, 1941. Under cover of stalling negotiations from the previous month, Japanese bombers raided Pearl Harbor, taking the lives of over 3,500 American servicemen. Upon President Roosevelt's request for war declaration, the men of Congress cast votes. Overwhelming yeas plunged the United States into the second world war.
Iraqis and Iraq-supported terrorists have executed plans in like manner to pre-war events, giving the recent American invasion of Iraq precedent. The Abu Nidal Organization, formerly housed in Iraq, hijacked and sabotaged an American aircraft on September 8, 1974, killing everyone on board. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization, a terrorist group sheltered in Iraq, killed American military and civilian personnel throughout the 1970s. Iraq also sheltered the Palestine Liberation Front, a group that murdered United States citizen Leon Klinghoffer in 1985. In 1993, two Iraqis led an attempt to assassinate George Bush in Kuwait. Iraq has conducted activities similar to actions that, in previous years, brought the United States into war with other nations. As the British and Mexicans invaded property of the United States, so Iraq has been involved in invading an American aircraft. As the Spanish and Germans snuffed out American lives, so Iraq has killed United States citizens. Invasion of Iraq has precedent because of past engagements.
