A strange similar period in American history... the west was almost settled and exploited and America needed a new enemy...thankfully Spain came along...and the Idea of Manifest Destiny was born...
McKinley:
“Let England take care of herself. Let France look after her own interests. Let France look after her own interests. Let Germany take care of her own people; but in God’s name let America look after America.”
of course he was shot....
Roosevelt got stuck with the Colonies we inherited during the Spanish American War (Haiti, Cuba, Philippines etc) I can't imagine Frederick Remington doing a statue of Bush riding a bike...
"not only the extension of liberty and order, and the bringing nearer by gigantic strides of the day when peace shall come to the whole earth."
The original Neocons..(oxymoron) Roosevelt: "McKinley is bent on peace, I fear."
sound familar??
We of course ended up with a bargain sale collection of third world real estate...Philippines and Puerto Rica the chief colonies with Cuba being an interesting parallel to Iraq:
"The court said that the first duty of the United States under its pledge to secure for the Cubans the freedom to which they are entitled is to protect them by every just and legal method. When the United States postal code superseded that of Cuba and Neely became an officer under that code it was the duty of the United States to protect the citizens of Cuba against the citizens of its own government." 1899