We think our political response to war - and the arguments we make about it - to be new. But certainly in the capacity for Government deceit (at alleged deceit and accusations of deceit) nothing has changed. Here's Abe Lincoln criticising the Mexican War and arguing that Polk's justifications were...
"from beginning to end, the sheerest deception..."
...and that Polk (the Democratic President of the time):
"...originally having some strong motive...to involve the two countries in war and trusting to avoid scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory."
Lincoln argued that Polk had:
"...swept on and on until disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which Mexico might be subdued, he now finds himself...a bewildered, confounded and miserably perplexed man."*
Now this was partly an example of Lincoln's style - his use of moral judgment to design a political point - but is was at its core political opportunism as Lincoln had backed the war!
Nothing changes!
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*Quotes are from a speach by then Congressman Lincoln to the House of Representatives, 12th January 1848 and are taken from David Reynolds, "America, Empire of Liberty"
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