4 + 1 Noteworthy Examples of Political Power and Politics Overstepping Bounds.

We look up in pride at our political institutions, the idea that we vote for those in office and have the final say in power and politics. Our political culture is praised as leading the world in equality, ethics and forward thinking. Today I would like propose a list of significant politically impacting events which have shaped our world to where we are today. Without making any implications, I would just like to illustrate a curious trend.

The following are a list of political issues in human history which changed the world thereafter.

Feb 27^th, 1933:

The German parliament (Reichstag) was burned down; the state would later claim that the incident was perpetrated by communist terrorists. Shortly after many German laws were changed and this moment paved the way for events which sparked WW2. (United States Holocaust Museum, 2014) 

Following WW2, it was realized that the burning down of the Reichstag was a political gamble in order to entice fear and propaganda-based political ideology in the German people. (United States Holocaust Museum, 2014)

May 7^th, 1915:

A German U-Boat sinks the RMS Lusitania killing 128 Americans. The event drew the US into WW1, a war which they were officially neutral. The German government published paid ads in American newspapers urging people to avoid a US-UK route and explicitly listed the Lusitania as a vessel to avoid. (Rosenberg, Sinking of the Lusitania, 2014)

The Lusitania was listed as a neutral vessel with only passengers aboard. A deep-sea dive in 2008 revealed over 4 million rounds of ammunition on board. A discovery which would have sparked a serious political issue at the time (Rosenberg, Sinking of the Lusitania, 2014)

December 7^th, 1941

Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack would spark a political issue and bring the US into WW2. (Rosenberg, Attack on Pearl Harbor, 2014) The Battleships were vulnerable, the US navy was hundreds of miles away, warnings were ignored and the attack was instigated in the preceding months, regardless of the non-intervention policy. (US Navy, 2014)

August 2^nd & 4^th, 1964:

US Navy destroyers reported being assaulted by N. Vietnamese vessels on 2 separate occasions. Shortly after, US Congress allowed an invasion of Vietnam. This event turned out to be nothing but political news, the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” later revealed that of the two attacks, one only involved a bullet hitting a destroyer and the other was a destroyer firing at nothing more than radar blips in a storm. (Hickman, 2014)

September 11^th, 2001

Hijacked aircraft attacked the WTC and Pentagon. A fear-mongering political ideology brought America into Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically looking to find WMDs. On that day, curiously, all American fighter aircraft were tens of miles away or conducting a training exercise to combat hijacked aircraft, thus creating a highly confusing scenario for defense forces. If 9/11 wasn't politically motivated, it would be the only outlier of the list (Perloff, et al., 2007)

So I leave it at this, do these examples bear the tell-tale signs of power abuse? Do we foster an appropriate political culture? Are they just coincidences or could there have been intent and why do you feel so?