.The Iraq war and the Utah War: Sobering similarities
In 2007 the Iraq war looks like an unparalleled fiasco, but we went through something similar 150 years ago. In this sesquicentennial year of the 1857 Utah War, it's worth comparing "Buchanan's Blunder" to the current conflict, which many now call "Bush's Blunder."
The sobering similarities include hazy goals, the huge expense in lives and money, official corruption, the shadow of religious prejudice, and the uselessness of it all.
The stated goals of both wars were spurious. In 1857 President James Buchanan acted to put down a nonexistent rebellion in Utah; in our day George W. Bush has acted to interdict nonexistent terrorists in Iraq.
More shadowy purposes underlay both conflicts. The Iraq war is arguably about control of the world's most valuable strategic resource: Iraq's vast oil pool. The 1857 war was linked to powerful interests seeking control of railroad routes and land speculation in Utah.
Under the 1841 Pre-emption Act, all Utah land was federally owned. With military control over the territory, federal officials could demand the cash-poor Mormons buy the land they had settled when it was under Mexican law, and failing that, could confiscate it.
Faulty intelligence led to both wars. Everyone now knows about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" and the concocted linkage between Iraq and al-Qaida. Intelligence was just as bad in 1857. Corrupt officials painted for Buchanan a fanciful picture of Mormon rebelliousness, of a force of 250,000 "Danites" in mountain fortresses preparing to conquer the United States.
And just as U.S. soldiers were told that Iraqis would welcome them with flowers, according to historian Eugene Campbell, "Many Eastern leaders, including the president and his cabinet, were laboring under the false impression that the Mormons would welcome the soldiers as saviors."
Buchanan invaded Utah without validating any of this. Hubert Howe Bancroft noted that Buchanan "sent forward an army before the causes of offence had been fairly investigated, and now, at this critical juncture in the nation's history, he was about to lock up in a distant and almost inaccessible region more than one-third of the nation's war material and nearly all its best troops."
Both wars were bonanzas for corrupt government contractors. In 2007 we all know about Halliburton and Iraq. In 1857 the first big government contracting firm - Russell, Majors, and Waddell - was formed to supply the Army in the West.
The firm later went bankrupt when it was discovered that Secretary of War John B. Floyd (a 19th century Donald Rumsfeld) tried to secure it with stolen government bonds. Floyd barely escaped indictment as he defected to the South in the Civil War.
Government incompetence characterized both wars. The Iraq quagmire is too familiar to us. Likewise, U.S. soldiers were tied down through the winter of 1857-58 by Mormon guerrillas who, although carefully avoiding shedding their blood, stampeded their stock and destroyed their supplies. The following three-year Army occupation of Cedar Valley cost millions and achieved nothing.
The specter of religious prejudice hung over both wars. While Americans today talk about wiping out "hajjis" and "ragheads," in 1857 the commanding general intended to "execute in a summary fashion" the Mormon "scoundrels" and "winter in the Temple of the Latter-day Saints."
Finally, both wars were incredibly costly in terms of lives and treasure. Just as the war of 1857 led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Iraq war has produced hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. The "Utah Expedition" cost the U.S. government some $9 million, a huge sum for the time; Iraq could eventually cost as much as $1.2 trillion.
What The New York Times said in 1858 of the Utah War - "as much ignorance, stupidity and dishonesty as any Government ever managed to get into" - is true of Iraq as well. Too bad the powerful pay so little attention to history.
Salf Lake Tribune
Well I am not too sure about how much weight to give this argument when they get the essentials so wrong.
Oil is the least of our goals. Now if they were talking about a transcontinental overland route from China to Pakistan, or Europe, them maybe, just maybe I would have read further.
The sobering similarities include hazy goals, the huge expense in lives and money, official corruption, the shadow of religious prejudice, and the uselessness of it all.
The stated goals of both wars were spurious. In 1857 President James Buchanan acted to put down a nonexistent rebellion in Utah; in our day George W. Bush has acted to interdict nonexistent terrorists in Iraq.
More shadowy purposes underlay both conflicts. The Iraq war is arguably about control of the world's most valuable strategic resource: Iraq's vast oil pool. The 1857 war was linked to powerful interests seeking control of railroad routes and land speculation in Utah.
Under the 1841 Pre-emption Act, all Utah land was federally owned. With military control over the territory, federal officials could demand the cash-poor Mormons buy the land they had settled when it was under Mexican law, and failing that, could confiscate it.
Faulty intelligence led to both wars. Everyone now knows about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" and the concocted linkage between Iraq and al-Qaida. Intelligence was just as bad in 1857. Corrupt officials painted for Buchanan a fanciful picture of Mormon rebelliousness, of a force of 250,000 "Danites" in mountain fortresses preparing to conquer the United States.
And just as U.S. soldiers were told that Iraqis would welcome them with flowers, according to historian Eugene Campbell, "Many Eastern leaders, including the president and his cabinet, were laboring under the false impression that the Mormons would welcome the soldiers as saviors."
Buchanan invaded Utah without validating any of this. Hubert Howe Bancroft noted that Buchanan "sent forward an army before the causes of offence had been fairly investigated, and now, at this critical juncture in the nation's history, he was about to lock up in a distant and almost inaccessible region more than one-third of the nation's war material and nearly all its best troops."
Both wars were bonanzas for corrupt government contractors. In 2007 we all know about Halliburton and Iraq. In 1857 the first big government contracting firm - Russell, Majors, and Waddell - was formed to supply the Army in the West.
The firm later went bankrupt when it was discovered that Secretary of War John B. Floyd (a 19th century Donald Rumsfeld) tried to secure it with stolen government bonds. Floyd barely escaped indictment as he defected to the South in the Civil War.
Government incompetence characterized both wars. The Iraq quagmire is too familiar to us. Likewise, U.S. soldiers were tied down through the winter of 1857-58 by Mormon guerrillas who, although carefully avoiding shedding their blood, stampeded their stock and destroyed their supplies. The following three-year Army occupation of Cedar Valley cost millions and achieved nothing.
The specter of religious prejudice hung over both wars. While Americans today talk about wiping out "hajjis" and "ragheads," in 1857 the commanding general intended to "execute in a summary fashion" the Mormon "scoundrels" and "winter in the Temple of the Latter-day Saints."
Finally, both wars were incredibly costly in terms of lives and treasure. Just as the war of 1857 led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Iraq war has produced hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. The "Utah Expedition" cost the U.S. government some $9 million, a huge sum for the time; Iraq could eventually cost as much as $1.2 trillion.
What The New York Times said in 1858 of the Utah War - "as much ignorance, stupidity and dishonesty as any Government ever managed to get into" - is true of Iraq as well. Too bad the powerful pay so little attention to history.
Salf Lake Tribune
Well I am not too sure about how much weight to give this argument when they get the essentials so wrong.
Oil is the least of our goals. Now if they were talking about a transcontinental overland route from China to Pakistan, or Europe, them maybe, just maybe I would have read further.
posted by madtom at 11:50 AM
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