Stop me if any of this sounds familiar...you've heard all this before, right?

[WilliamPitt]

(Book review in the Boston Globe this morning)

Revisiting an unpopular war and US colonialism
By Peter Kneisel, Globe Correspondent | March 31, 2007

The book:

A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902
By David J. Silbey
Hill & Wang, 272 pp., $26

It was supposed to be a quiet footnote to the Spanish-American War, a keenly anticipated walk over against the hopelessly outmatched ragtag Philippine Army of Liberation.

It became a brutish colonial war that turned unpopular at home because it resisted the jingoistic bunting that adorned the "splendid" war with Spain. It took the lives of 4,200 US servicemen, 20,000 Philippine soldiers, and between 200,000 and a million civilians. It was fought to secure the Philippines as the new western edge of America's manifest destiny, against an army the United States had armed and encouraged, and then against the insurrectionists and the civilian population that supported them. The Philippine-American War disappeared from the American consciousness, overshadowed by bigger wars. It is a good time to revisit it.

David Silbey provides us with a timely, deft reexamination of American politics at the turn of the 20th century. The Philippine Islands were an unexpected prize following the swift capitulation of the Spanish. The national debate was clear: Should a nation founded on the principle of self-determination -- fundamentally anti-imperialist -- become a colonial power? And its pressing corollary: How does a young country, clearly enamored of its own "exceptionalism," lift up a polyglot archipelago of divers culture and religion, scattered over 150,000 square miles, if the people there won't stop shooting at it?

We know precisely when it began -- Feb. 4, 1899. A brief skirmish with US infantry killed three Liberation soldiers and fractured the uneasy alliance between the two armies. They were encamped side by side, allied to defeat the Spanish garrison isolated in Manila. But the US command had excluded the Filipinos from the staged, face-saving battle that preceded the Spanish surrender. The Army of Liberation felt betrayed by the ratification of the Treaty of Paris. Their worst fears had been realized. They had been traded from one colonial master to another.

For President McKinley and the War Department, hostilities allowed the Americans to brush aside the resistance and get on with the business of nation-building. The United States had arrived on the international stage: the Philippines would be a strategic anchor in the Pacific and a commercial gateway to the Far East.

Three years later, after the assassination of McKinley, President Theodore Roosevelt's declaration of victory on July 4, 1902, would only be useful for clerical purposes because the war would rage on for another decade. Roosevelt had a mid term election coming up, and the war had become both a political liability and a public relations nightmare. The proclamation of victory was a cynical counterbalance to sensational congressional hearings that soured the public with evidence of torture, summary executions, and reprisals. Two generals were court-martialed for classifying combatants as any male over the age of 10.

More: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/03/31/revisiting_an_unpopular_war_and_us_colonialism/

There is no present or future, only the past happening over and over again - now.

- Eugene O'Neill

[Parisle]

1. Twain sharpened his political commentary on this one, right?

--- Seems I recall a Mark Twain essay from this conflict -- he may even have been briefly present in the Philippines, but I'm not sure about that. In the essay, he recounts how the US Army herded thousands of natives into the crater of a dead volcano,... and then spent the next two days gunning them down from their elevated vantage point on the rim. The story did not play well back home,... Twain had put a face of human suffering and human cruelty on all that flag & country bullshit.

--- Same deal, right?

[REP]

2. This Essay: Incident in the Philippines (Also 'The War Prayer')

Mark Twain, "Incident in the Philippines" (1924)

. . . This incident burst upon the world last Friday in an official cablegram from the commander of our forces in the Philippines to our government at Washington. The substance of it was as follows:

A tribe of Moros, dark-skinned savages, had fortified themselves in the bowl of an extinct crater not many miles from Jolo; and as they were hostiles, and bitter against us because we have been trying for eight years to take their liberties away from them, their presence in that position was a menace. Our commander, General Leonard Wood, ordered a reconnaissance . It was found that the Moros numbered six hundred, counting women and children; that their crater bowl was in the summit of a peak or mountain twenty-two hundred feet above sea level, and very difficult of access for Christian troops and artillery. . . . Our troops climbed the heights by devious and difficult trails, and even took some artillery with them. . . . arrived at the rim of the crater, the battle began. Our soldiers numbered five hundred and forty. They were assisted by auxiliaries consisting of a detachment of native constabulary in our pay-their numbers not given-and by a naval detachment, whose numbers are not stated. But apparently the contending parties were about equal as to number-six hundred men on our side, on the edge of the bowl; six hundred men, women, and children in the bottom of the bowl. Depth of the bowl, 50 feet.

General Wood's order was, "Kill or capture the six hundred."

The battle began-it is officially called by that name-our forces firing down into the crater with their artillery and their deadly small arms of precision; the savages furiously returning the fire, probably with brickbats-though this is merely a surmise of mine, as the weapons used by the savages are not nominated in the cablegram. Heretofore the Moros have used knives and clubs mainly; also ineffectual trade-muskets when they had any.

The official report stated that the battle was fought with prodigious energy on both sides during a day and a half, and that it ended with a complete victory for the American arms. The completeness of the victory is established by this fact: that of the six hundred Moros not one was left alive. The brilliancy of the victory is established by this other fact, to wit: that of our six hundred heroes only fifteen lost their lives.

General Wood was present and looking on. His order had been, "Kill or capture those savages." Apparently our little army considered that the "or" left them authorized to kill or capture according to taste, and that their taste had remained what it has been for eight years, in our army out there-the taste of Christian butchers. . . .

Let us now consider two or three details of our military history. In one of the great battles of the Civil War ten per cent of the forces engaged on the two sides were killed and wounded. At Waterloo, where four hundred thousand men were present on the two sides, fifty thousand fell, killed and wounded, in five hours, leaving three hundred and fifty sound and all right for further adventures. Eight years ago, when the pathetic comedy called the Cuban War was played, we summoned two hundred and fifty thousand men. We fought a number of showy battles, and when the war was over we had lost two hundred sixty-eight men out of our two hundred and fifty thousand, in killed and wounded in the field, and just fourteen times as many by the gallantry of the army doctors in the hospitals and camps. We did not exterminate the Spaniards-far from it. In each engagement we left an average of two per cent of the enemy killed or crippled on the field.

Contrast these things with the great statistics which have arrived from that Moro crater! There, with six hundred engaged on each side, we lost fifteen men killed outright, and we had thirty-two wounded. . . . The enemy numbered six hundred-including women and children-and we abolished them utterly, leaving not even a baby alive to cry for its dead mother. This is incomparably the greatest victory that was ever achieved by the Christian soldiers of the United States.

[leftchick]

12. I remember that well

it is a shame it isn't read in the classroom instead of the revisionist history and propaganda passed off as US History today. I hope some day my children will thank me for telling them the awful truth of the USA to counter the crap spoon fed them at school.

[Old and In the Way]

3. That is disturbing Mr. Pitt.

I wonder how US history books will portray our Iraqi fiasco 50 years from now? I guess that will depend greatly on who wins the next few election cycles.

[formercia]

9. If Junior and gang have their way

they will win every one of them, for they have control of the apparatus of government. We didn't vote them into office. They took control by means of a coup d'etat and allowed us the thin veil of an election charade.

[EVDebs]

10. Gloriously ! Gwen Awfil's quote is hysterical...

From FAIR
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3062

May 2, 2003
—"The war winds down, politics heats up.... Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."
(PBS's Gwen Ifill on Bush's speech)

—On Fox News Channel, Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum declares: "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose—cannot oppose him politically."


May 4, 2003
—"Now that the combat phase of the war in Iraq is officially over, what begins is a debate throughout the entire U.S. government over America's unrivaled power and how best to use it."
(CBS reporter Joie Chen)

[Jonathan50]

4. History does not repeat itself,

But it does rhyme -Mark Twain

[DinahMoeHum]

5. ". . .underneath the starry flag, Christianize them with a Krag. . ."

- sung by US soldiers during the Philippine Insurrection.

Mark Twain wrote about it in his essay "To The Person Sitting In Darkness", and satirically suggested that the US should change the design on it's flag:

http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_4.3/twain.htm

(snip)
"...And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one – our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones..."
(snip)

:evilfrown:

[many a good man]

8. Appropos

[KG]

6. ah yes. another shining example of how the wonderful US has spead

goodness and light, not to mention democracy, all over the world throughout its history. :eyes:

[Laurab]

7. K & R n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Gen. Petraeus is a big fan of our efforts in the Philippine war.

1,000,000 or so dead later and an official proclamation of victory and you have your successful counter-insurgency.

[Bigmack]

13. Gen. Smith before him....

"I want no prisoners, I wish you to kill and burn: the more you kill and burn the better you will please me," was the order Gen. Jacob Smith issued a century ago as his troops slaughtered civilians and Filipino revolutionaries alike defending the first republic in Asia and the freedom they had just wrested from Spain. Smith had ordered his troops to turn the island of Samar into a "howling wilderness" so that "even birds could not live there." When asked by a soldier to define the age limit for killing, Smith replied, "Everything over ten." Foreshadowing the fate of Lt. William Calley, who was found guilty of leading U.S. soldiers in perpetrating horrors in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and who served only four and a half months of his life sentence behind bars after which he was pardoned by Richard Nixon, Gen. Smith was court-martialed for issuing his barbaric orders, found guilty, and sentenced to - an admonition.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=1271

[northofdenali]

14. Pitt is Priceless -

as usual. As one who has been around a while, bought and read all of your books, etc. - I have only one question.

Where's your mom? Haven't seen her here in ages! Are you not being a good son and taking her great things to eat and drink, and to the park, and such? Huh??

:P

[eridani]

15. Dems were firm anti-imperialists in 1900

Great gramma and great grampa knew a thing or three that we seem to have forgotten, no?

http://janda.org/politxts/PartyPlatforms/Democratic/dem.900.html

We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny, and that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution can exercise lawful authority beyond it or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.

<snip>

We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but we believe that that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example.

<snip>

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army and unnecessary burden of taxation, and will be a constant menace to their liberties.

[ContraBass Black]

16. May I copy your emphasis?

[Bucky]

17. "Two generals were court-martialed for classifying combatants as any male over the age of 10"

See, there's the difference right there: War time atrocities got generals punished.

Also, Teddy Roosevelt never told General Arthur MacArthur or Governor Taft they were doing a heck of a job.

[Bucky]

18. Forgot to add: Mark Twain's famous "The War Pray" was written about that occupation

The story was set in the Spanish-American War, but he wrote it during the Philippine Insurrection.

A great, short read.... http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_War_Prayer