"Benevolent Assimilation...."

Forget the comparison with Vietnam. Consider the American-Philippine War of 1899-1903. I am just finishing "Benevolent Assimilation" The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903, by Stuart Creighton Miller, Yale U. Press, 1982. The comparison with what is now happening in Iraq is absolutely uncanny. First, an unpopular repressive administration (Spain) that needs to be overthrown. America steps in to help rid the Philippines of Spanish rule. The Philippinos want independence but America won't leave. There are insurgents determined to save their country. There is an undeclared "war." America doesn't send enough troops to do the job. There is an extended guerilla-type "war," although the U.S. is far superior in military firepower, etc. There are atrocities on both sides, terrible atrocities by U.S. troops compared with what were regarded as U.S. standards of warfare, the unwarranted killing of innocent civilians, including women and children, rape, the burning and destruction of entire villages. There is torture, including water torture. There is looting and profiteering. There is American arrogance and racism. There are continuing claims that all is going well and the "war" is over, when it is far from being over. There are the anti-imperialists and the imperialists. If you read this book you will certainly think of contemporary Iraq. The Philippine "war," like the present Iraq "war," are doubtless the most despicable of all U.S. endeavors along these lines, black marks against our country that will never be erased. The only difference I can see is that in 1900 we were not so coy about our arrogance and racism:

"Our 'little brown brother,' the Filipino pure and simple, whom we are so anxious to uplift to his proper plane on earth and relieve from the burden cast upon him by heredity and a few hundred years of Spanish dominion, is without doubt unreliable, untrustworthy, ignorant, vicious, immoral, and lazy...tricky, and as a race more dishonest than any known race on the face of the earth."

"Soon we had orders to advance, and we...started across the creek in mud and water up to our waists. However, we did not mind it a bit, our fighting blood was up, and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' This shooting human beings is a 'hot game,' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces. We charged them and such a slaughter you never saw. We killed them like rabbits, hundreds, yes thousands of them. Everyone was crazy."

"The town of Titatia {sic} was surrendered to us a few days ago, and two companies occupy the same. Last night one of our boys was found shot and his stomach cut open. Immediately orders were received from General Wheaton to burn the town and kill every native in sight; which was done to a finish. About 1,000 men, women, and children were reported killed. I am probably growing hard-hearted, for I am in my glory when I can sight my gun on some dark skin and pull the trigger."

This kind of behavior on the part of American troops was partly due to the fact that many of the officers and enlisted men were veterans of the Indian wars in the U.S. and were proud of having participated in the genocide of American Indians. They merely took the same tactics they were familiar with to the Philippines. Will the outcome of the American-Iraq "war" be similar to the outcome of the American-Philippine "war?" I don't think so.

LKBIQ:
"Sundays are gloomy. My hours are slumberless. Dearest, the shadows I live with are numberless. Little white flowers will never awaken you, not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you. Gloomy sunday."
Billie Holiday