A inspiração

...ou como todas as guerras são democráticas.

"The New York Times has reported that the White House receives 50 copies of the Standard, which is edited by William Kristol." Jim Lobe

A Weekly Standard repete a história de William Randolph Hearst (e que inspirou Orson Welles), que incentivou nos seus jornais, a "Spanish-American War" em 1898.

"These events in Cuba coincided in the 1890s with a battle for readership between the American newspaper chains of Hearst and Pulitzer. Hearst's style of "yellow journalism" would outdo Pulitzer's, and he infamously used the power of his press to influence American opinion in favor of war. Certainly, real and documented atrocities were committed in Cuba. Civilian death toll was very high, and a real rebellion was being fought against Spanish rule[2]. But in addition, Hearst's newspapers often fabricated stories or embellished factual descriptions with highly inflammatory language. Hearst published sensationalized tales of atrocities which the "cruel Spanish" (see Black Legend) were inflicting on the "hapless Cubans". (...)

Outraged by the "inhumanity" of the Spanish, Americans were stirred up to pushing for an "intervention", which even the most jaded hawks, like a young Theodore Roosevelt, would treat as a mostly dress-up affair. Hearst is famously, but probably erroneously [4], quoted in his response to a request by his illustrator Frederic Remington to return home from an uneventful and docile stay in Havana, writing: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Hearst’s role in the war culminated when the sinking of the USS Maine in the harbor of Havana on the 15th of February 1898 enabled his paper to publish a series of anti-Spanish articles describing how the ship had been sabotaged by the Spanish and demanding American action. On April 4th the New York Journal, published a million newspapers dedicated to war against the Spanish. The public followed suit and demanded war. Soon after, on the 20th of April 1898, the US declared war on Spain. Without a doubt, Hearst played a key, third-party role in the 1898 Spanish-American War (which killed at least 8,000 American and Spanish soldiers and sailors, Cuban losses are not commonly tabulated); however, this US intervention put end to the 1895-1898 far bloodier Cuban War of Independence."Wikipedia

Como é que começou? O incêndio do navio "USS Maine" deveu-se a um acidente (assim é aceite pelos historiadores como o mais provável), mas com a ajuda de Hearst’s, acabou por se tornar no Casus Belli para a guerra de libertação de Cuba (foram ajudar ... independentistas ou ... terroristas?) contra a Coroa Espanhola.

Como é que acabou?

"The United States gained almost all of Spain's colonies, including the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Cuba was granted independence, but the United States imposed various restrictions on the new government, including prohibiting alliances with other countries.
On August 14, 1898, 11,000 ground troops were sent to occupy the Philippines. When U.S. troops began to take the place of the Spanish in control of the country, warfare broke out between U.S. forces and the Filipinos. The resulting Philippine-American War was long, bloody, and ultimately unsuccessful in quashing the Filipino nationalists' drive for independence, incurring thousands of military and civilian casualties during its fourteen-year span."

* "In December 1898, the U.S. purchased the Philippines and other territories from Spain at the Treaty of Paris for the sum of 20 million United States dollars, after the U.S. defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War. The U.S. government made plans to make the Philippines an American colony. However, the Filipinos, fighting for their independence from Spain since 1896, had already declared their independence on June 12. On August 14, 11,000 ground troops were sent to occupy the Philippines.

* "During the war, 4,324 American soldiers were killed and 2,818 were wounded. There were also 2,000 casualties that the Philippine Constabulary suffered during the war, over a thousand of which were fatalities. Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 (16 thousand actually counted) while civilian deaths numbered in 250,000 ..."

A oposição

"The American Anti-Imperialist League was formed on June 15, 1898 to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines and other U.S. insular areas on economic, legal, and moral grounds. Its president was George S. Boutwell, a former United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Some Americans, notably William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and other members of the American Anti-Imperialist League, strongly objected to the annexation of the Philippines. Other Americans mistakenly thought that the Philippines wanted to become part of the United States. Anti-imperialist movements claimed that the United States had betrayed its lofty goals of the Spanish-American War by becoming a colonial power, merely replacing Spain in the Philippines."

* Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman and major philanthropist and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U. S. Steel. He is known for having, later in his life, given away most of his riches to fund the establishment of many libraries, schools, and universities in America and worldwide.