Which U.S. wars were "justified?" [View All]

I was inspired by the thread on whether or not to use the bomb in setting up this thread.

....America has fought a lot of wars in its history, some good and some bad. I want to know which wars YOU felt were good and bad, or in a gray area where, "no maybe not, but we benefitted for the better in them" or "something worse could have happened."

Personally, I believe that the following were justified:

Revolutionary War (can't argue against Independence. No apologies to taking Torie land either.)

Civil War (stop slavery...even if that wasn't the original intent it became one over time....and to preserve the Union.)

World War II (fight back against Japan for attacking us first, and to stop Nazi aggression and genocide.)

Cold War (stop Soviet aggression and tyranny.)

Korean War (North Korea invaded South Korea first.)

First Gulf War (Saddam invaded Kuwait, although it was after he tought that WE wouldn't care if he invaded.)

Afghanistan/Broader "War on Terror." (I believe that religious fundamentalists who knock down our two tallest buildings and want to impose their reactionary 12th Cenutry view on us should be stopped. Note, I differentiate between this and the Iraq War, which was not in our interest.)

I believe that the following were not justified:

Indian Wars (Trail of Tears especially.)

Spanish-American War (the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine was likely a boiler explosion. In terms of the war itself, Spain treated their colonies like shit, so taking them away from the Spanish does not make me upset. My reason for opposing this war has more to do with how we treated the Filipinos and Cubans.)

Vietnam War (Containment gone wrong. Vietnam going Communist by itself did not pose a threat to us.)

Second Gulf War (Bush is liar about Iraq phony WMD threats. Saddam was not trying to invade other countries and was not creating mobile biological labs or drones that could hit the Continental United States
Iraq has also distracted us from the broaders War on Terror.)

Wars that fall into my "gray area."

War of 1812 (while we were not attacked first and some in Congress wanted Canada, the British were treating us like children in the years after the Revolutionary War. Impressing our ships, not cool! Despite this, they did not attack first, but the long-term benefit was an end to direct hostilities)

Mexican War (While many will say that this was nothing more than a land grab by the "Colossus of the North" both countrie's armies were nearly equally matched at the time. It was more analogus to how European wars were from the 1600's to World War I, in that it was a mutual distrust of each other. Also, many Mexicans and people of Spanish discent did not like Santa Anna or being told what to do by Mexico City. For example, the Tejanos in Texas and the Padres and Californios in California, each supported America. Manifest Destiny was one of our desired outcomes, but I do not believe that you can simply say we were praying on weak little Mexico. Also, many Americans thought that we would be lucky if the Mexicans did not take New Orleans)

World War I (Germany did not start this war, but rather it was the inevitable result of decades of arms races and alliances forged by each large power in Europe. Both sides were beligerant, and both sides targeted civilians, in contrast to what Wilson said about it mainly being Germany.) However, the threat of German political dominence throughout the war is uncertain. A Cold War-style conflict between America and Germany could have been the case had the Kaiser prevailed. Competition over colonial expansion would have been a likely conflict. Could we have even gotten along with them? Germany was also acting beligerant against us despite our warnings for them not to, including their violation of the Arabic-Sussex pledge and the Zimmerman Telegram.)