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Published Brownsville Herald 10/14/2007 

It is problematic to find out whether a war was begun for “the right reasons”; it is even difficult to determine what the right reasons are before, during or after the event.
I cannot support the initiation of any war that is solely for political or commercial gain, as it as it would seem may have been the reasons for the War of 1812 and World War I . In looking back, I can’t even determine what the reasons, America’s first War,  The War of 1812, were if not for commercial ones. A large opposition claimed at the time “…to launch the war was anti-democratic and hostile to “representative liberty”; that “war upon the land” as a response to attacks against “commerce upon the ocean” was not justified or effective; that the war would involve a dangerous entanglement with France, then fighting Britain in the Napoleonic Wars; and that with the U.S. unprepared for war and militarily weak, a disaster might result – “a war of invasion may invite a retort of invasion.”  A quote from an Address of Members of the House of Representatives… on the Subject of War with Great Britain,” and was signed by 34 of 36 House Federalists. It appears the war was more for commercial reasons than homeland defense. The prosecution of the war limited any opportunities for finding the truth. More »