And I have too much respect for your posting history to believe that you think we ever invaded the spanish mainland during the Second World War.
With respect to how many times we launched campaigns against the British in Canada during the War of 1812, so what? We invaded the Marianas and Marshals numerous times in 1943-44 because THAT'S WHERE THE ENEMY WAS. Were we supposed to march across the oceans to India, or Australia to fight the British ai 1813?
With respect to Thomas Jefferson's private letters, they expressed to no small degree his bitterness at how impotent he had been to resist British aggression during his administartion. They no more superceded the actual 1812 war aims than, say, do the writings of private citizens of the Confederacy negate the clearly stated aims of the Declarations of Succession of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, etc.
I don't understand why you'd work so hard to deny the obvious.
The US multiple invasion attempts, despite failure after failure, demonstrate the strength of our Founders' motivation to conquer Canada.
How can that be anything less than obvious?
Sure, you can say: it wasn't Canada they wanted, only to defeat the British army.
But do you not understand, without a British army there in 1812, there literally was no "Canada" -- it was all just empty territory with no government and very little population.
If the US had defeated the Brits in Canada in 1812 -- especially after our Founders had tried so hard during the Revolutionary War to conquer or negotiate ownership of Canada -- whatever can you imagine they would have done with Canada?
Seriously, what?
Castlebar: "do you honestly think acquisition of bases on North Africa and in Western Europe was a war aim indeceber 1941?"
Of course not, but Canada in 1812 was a vastly different situation.
And the point of mentioning US bases in North Africa and Europe -- since you brought up the subject -- was to demonstrate how victory in battle can produce numerous benefits, that is, if you consider the cost of constant military vigilance a "benefit".
And, by the way, the US did maintain bases in France for about 20 years after the war.