Patrick J. Buchanan – February 3, 2003

Rarely do wars, once begun, work out as anticipated.

As 1898 began, William McKinley could not have dreamed the year would end with America annexing the Philippines. Yet by December, the United States, having routed Spain, had launched a three-year war to crush Filipino resistance to U.S. imperial rule.

By 1900, with his “Open Door” policy, McKinley had embroiled us for a century in the politics of Asia. All this came as the consequence of a war begun because a U.S. battleship blew up in Havana harbor, almost certainly an accident for which Spain bore no responsibility.