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April 14, 2003
California conquest
California conquest
I was reading Gregg Easterbrook's best laid plans, when the following line came up "A nation the size of California captured in three weeks with relatively few dead". A little-though-of fact is that California itself is conquered territory. The entire state once was Mexican (and before that Spanish, and before that...), and only became part of the US as a result of conquest during the Mexican/American war. A little judicious research (the Harper Encyclopedia of Military History is useful for such things) turns up that California was conquered in only 20 days; one less than it took to conquer all of Iraq. President Polk sent a smaller amount of troops into California than Bush sent into Iraq, and given the way military force has multiplied, the actual amount of firepower Polk sent in was miniscule by comparison...
Until I learned this, I thought that perhaps we had done well in Iraq. But given the historical parallels it becomes clear; Bush has failed to do well in Iraq. Polk in 2004!
Posted by Andrew at April 14, 2003 07:34 PM