On 2016-05-01 8:11 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On 5/1/2016 7:18 PM, dsi1 wrote:
>
>> My father-in-law's mother in Montana would read accounts of Queen
>> Liliuokalani's plight in the newspaper and weep. President McKinley's
>> willingness to turn his back on the naive and trusting Hawaiians
>> seemed to be an un-American thing to do.
>>
>
> A lot of un=American things were done years ago.


Actually, in the eyes of the world, it is very much an American thing to
do. It's not as if other countries have not done similar things, but it
is very much of pattern of US activities for more than 200 years.
American settlers went to Texas, which was part of Mexico and ended up
revolting and establishing their own republic, later joining the US. The
country then tried to buy a huge amount of land from Mexico and when the
Mexicans refused they instigated a war and part of the terms of the
treaty to end the war was to sell the land to the US for that same
amount. They had had their eyes on Cuba since at least the 1850s and
send an envoy to Britain and France to see how they would feel about the
US taking Cuba from the Spanish. Later on, they intervened in the Cuban
rebellion against the Spanish. About the same time, they US took over
the Philippines and a number of other islands.


Less successful methods were used against Canada. The US invaded in 1812
but failed to "liberate" British North America. Later on the government
tacitly approved the Fenian invasions of Canada.


Then there is the issue of the Panama Canal. There had been a deal for
the US to remain neutral in the conflict between Colombia and separatist
Panama. There was also a deal between Colombia and the US to build a
canal, but when Colombian Congress would not pass it, so the US support
the Panamanians in their fight for independence.