The American Southwest is now part of the US because of those same type of "vigilantes" that fought Mexican troops.
If the Times had been around at that time they would have been on the side of the Mexicans.
No doubt about that. Dan Rather would have conducted a sit down interview with Santa Anna.
Well not quite, the Southwest was obtained after the war with Mexico, fought by both regular federal troops and levies from the state militias. It was not fought by private militias or by state militias acting under state orders. They were officered by the likes of Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, U.S. Grant, and other such recognizable US military officers who later found themselves on opposite sides during the later unpleasantness.