Whose viewpoint regarding the Spanish American War is more convincing? US or Spain?

There are a number of ways that you could define each
country's viewpoints regarding this war.  I will set out how I see each
viewpoint.

For the US, the viewpoint was that the Spanish
were brutally subjugating the people of Cuba.  Many Americans felt that the Spanish
tactics against the Cuban rebels were atrocious.  They also felt sympathy with the Cuban
rebels since they were fighting for independence.

For
Spain, the viewpoint was that Cuba was an integral part of their territory and they were
trying their best to accomodate the rebels' demands.  They felt that they were trying to
improve their rule of Cuba giving the island, for example, some amount of
autonomy.

As to which is more convincing, I would say
neither.  Americans did not really care about Cuba's independence, as can be seen from
the fact that the US took a great deal of control over Cuba after the war (see Platt
Amendment link below).  At the same time, the Spanish were only really trying to give
Cuba enough concessions to get the US off their backs.  They were not really sincere
about relaxing their hold on the island.

I would argue that
this was a plain and simple war for territory between two imperialist powers and neither
side's arguments were very convincing to me.