---

In Seeking War, George W. Bush Held True to Form
In a recent post, I demonstrated that aspiring historians of the current U.S. war against Iraq need not go to the trouble of composing a completely new narrative. Patterns persist. To set out the character of the personalities and the actions that led to this war, historians need only employ the narrative of a past war, altering the names and places to suit the present occasion. My previous template originated in an account of President William McKinley and the U.S. war against Spain in 1898, which set the stage for the protracted, if nearly forgotten, U.S. war against the Filipino resistance fighters. McKinley in the war of '98, however, is not the only presidential warmonger who might be employed as a model for George W. Bush in his war against Iraq. The following text, in which my changes appear in brackets, illustrates the relevance of a different precursor and the conditions that fostered his resort to war....