The Mexican War: An Exercise in American Imperialism?

I think that Ruiz makes the better argument with his "YES" position. Americans were so caught up in their superiority that they wanted every piece of land on our continent for themselves. He makes a good point when he says that Americans were basically racist against anyone other than themselves. Because of this, many Indians on the continent were forced to leave their lands to please the whites' greediness. This was not fair! In addition, Ruiz says that, unlike Mexico, America was not used to diversity of any kind. All of the immigrants that were welcomed were of European descent! Like Ruiz said, we could not have been a true melting pot if we did not welcome Indians or blacks to be a part of it. Polk's declaration of war on Mexico was based purely on greediness and the knowledge that Mexico couldn't defend itself properly. Therefore, he backed Mexico into a corner in which it could not escape-all for the prosperity of the "stuck-up" Americans (of course, we are no longer stuck up :) ). Based on the aforementioned points, I obviously agree with Ruiz' argument. What Polk and the rest of the country did was unfair to Mexico considering their present situation, and it made us look selfish.