<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">What were they thinking?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">• In an effort to put an end to Britain and France's policy of seizing American ships and sailors, Thomas Jefferson calls for an embargo.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The Result: 30,000 sailors put out of work; mercantile families bankrupted overnight; a nationwide economic depression; and the New England states, which depended heavily on international commerce, threaten to secede from the Union.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">• To promote the doctrine of popular sovereignty, Franklin Pierce approves the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and permits residents of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether their territories will admit slavery.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The Result: Dozens of settlers murdered; Lawrence, Kansas, burned and looted; John Brown elevated to the status of national hero among abolitionists; the country moves closer to civil war.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">• Convinced the 20,000 men, women, and children of the Bonus Army were Communists and criminals, Herbert Hoover sends 600 crack troops, a detachment of cavalry, and five tanks to drive the protesters out of Washington.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The Result: 4 dead, including two infants; more than 1,000 injured; the Communist Party in America enjoys a public relations field day; Hoover is driven into political exile.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">• In an effort to install a capitalist government in the Middle East, stabilize the region, and protect America from a possible Iraqi terrorist assault using weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush orders the invasion of Iraq.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">The Result: More than 4,000 American soldiers and personnel dead; estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; hundreds of billions of dollars spent; the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction leave American global credibility in tatters.</p></div>