WAR WITH MEXICO

The dispute with Mexico over a “great wall” that will keep pesky foreigner out of our country is only the latest in a historical contest between the two.

Are we ready to cede land to Mexico?  We will if a wall is built because one cannot build such a thing on any land but one we own so the wall will be built on American soil, meaning the land on the other side will belong to Mexico which could do whatever it wants with the land.

There has been ill-will between the two nations based on the events of 1846 to 1848.  Most of the people listening to the White House chatter probably don’t know how the U.S. stole half of Mexico.

It started a decade earlier when Americans moved into the sparsely populated land of Texas, a province of Mexico,  bringing with them slaves to work the land.  Slavery was illegal in Mexico and therefore Texans were ordered to free them or leave.

Instead, the Texans declared the province independent and all sorts of provocateurs descended on the land forcing a series of military battles in which the poorly-led Mexican army was defeated.  However, Mexico insisted Texas was part of its nation and not independent.

Then the U.S., planning on expanding slavery westward, annexed Texas as a state leading to more armed conflict that expanded into a full-fledged war.  Under Generals Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor, the American army overwhelmed Mexican forces in a series of battles and eventually occupied Mexico City itself forcing the Mexican government to sue for peace.

In the ensuing treaty, Mexico was forced to give up half of its territory including what is now all of California, Nevada, Utah,  and most of Arizona, plus parts of New Mexico and Colorado, along with recognition  that Texas was part of the U.S.

To make matters worse, the occupying American forces went insane, raping, pillaging, and murdering private citizens, and to such an extent that soldiers like Lt. Ulysses Grant wrote home questioning the morality of the war.

The U.S. nearly went to war again when it was learned that during World War I the Germans had made overtures to the Mexican government to align with Germany to defeat the U.S. noting that when the war was over, Mexico would be able to regain all of that land lost 75 years earlier.

When the German-Mexican contacts were discovered, there was talk about declaring war on Mexico, but that soon fizzled.  Still the ill-will was evident.

That persisted in World War II when there was apprehension the Japanese might offer the same incentive to Mexico if it would align with Japan thus allowing the Japanese army and navy to use Mexico as a staging area to invade the U.S. mainland.

That didn’t occur, but the ill-feeling was there and the distrust lasted for decades.

The odd thing about all of this talk of a wall is most of the people coming into the U.S. illegally are not Mexicans, but are those fleeing oppressive governments in Central America (which are backed by the U.S.).  If a wall is to be built, it should be on Mexico’s southern border.

Gangs control much of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, with most of these founded by foreign gangsters in the U.S. who were deported back to their home countries where they continued to build their organizations.

So, blaming Mexico for the increase in undocumented aliens is a stretch at best, and an ill-informed president, babbling off the top of his head without knowing the history, can only lead to another sad chapter in an already unhappy situation.