History does repeat

During my lunchtime reading, I came across this phrase, in justification for funding an opposed war:

They did not want to risk the accusation that they were putting American soldiers in peril by depriving them of the materials necessary to fight.

I know, nothing new there - but that's the point. This could have been taken out of any article about the Congressional debate about Iraq... but I'm reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn and this passage is in reference to the Mexican-American War in which President James K. Polk fought Mexico for control of California. Manifest destiny rolls on...