The Philippines: Remembering a Forgotten Occupation

[Origanalist]

It didn't take long for the consolidated republic (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/acton-lee.html) forged in 1865 to prove just how "aggressive abroad" it would be (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-ditz/remembering-a-forgotten-o_b_3447598.html);

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the last major battle in one of the most brutal military occupations in American history, and one that has gone almost entirely forgotten, left as little more than a footnote in the history books of children. I am speaking, of course, of the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.
The United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, after it was ceded to them by Spain following the Spanish-American War. The big problem was that the people of the Philippines had already declared independence from Spain several months prior.
What followed was 15 years of bloody crackdowns by U.S. forces under the pretext of what President McKinley called a goal of "benevolent assimilation" of the islands into a dominion of the United States.

"Benevolent assimilation," like George W. Bush's "Global Democratic Revolution," was just a pretty slogan to mask the aggression of an authoritarian, centralized regime. We're still seeing the bloody results of that regime today.
http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-philippines-remembering-forgotten.html

[Cutlerzzz]

Fun stat: The Philippines population was 7 million during the war and historians estimate that the US war killed as many as 1.5 million of them.

American Progressive hero Teddy Roosevelt had no problem putting entire villages in concentration camps.

[UWDude]

fun stat: almost 4,000 American soldiers died during the Filipino-American war

And they call the Korean war the forgotten war?
I never even heard of the Filipino-American war until college.

[Acala]

And our occupation played a major role in pulling the US into war with Japan in the Pacific.

[bunklocoempire]

All helped along by the smoooooooth annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii 1893. What could possibly go wrong in the Philippines?

Oh if all occupations were to go as smooth as Hawaii!

Sugar, bananas, rubber, oil and FRN's are on God's side! /s

EDIT: STILL living with the repercussions of those events out this way. :mad:

[Origanalist]

Winning Hearts and Minds in the Philippines




“On July 4, 1901, William Howard Taft took the oath of office as the first Governor-General of the Philippines, and control of the islands passed from the military arm of the government. Not all the problems [of converting the islands] had been solved. Philippine society remained ill-suited to the concept of representative democratic government, primarily because it is not one culture, but several. An election in Zamboanga was decided by which Filipino shot the other candidates first.


The Filipinos in the northern islands were Tagalog Christians, those in the south were Moro’s (meaning “Mohammedan”) who had long resisted Tagalog encroachment. A tribal people, they were fiercely jealous of their semi-savage freedom. Wisely, the Spaniards had left them to their own devices; but the Americans wanted to clean up and educate everybody.


So the [American] army established a garrison at Balangiga, on Samar, in the south where Magellan had sighted the Philippines and where he was to die at the hands of natives. On September 1, 1901, the natives from the surrounding hills of Balangiga fell on the American garrison, and in a devastating surprise littered the street with the heads, brains and intestines of the soldiery. This was the beginning of a religious war with the Moros, one that took longer to settle than the war against Aguinaldo’s insurrectos. The fight became a struggle to win the minds and hearts of the villagers, who supplied the guerrilla bands and offered them bases and sanctuaries.


What was called for [to control the Moros], [General John] Pershing decided, was to disarm the entire Moro Province, to confiscate or buy every rifle, pistol, campilan, bolo and krise on the islands. It was not an original idea. General Leonard Wood, who left the Philippines in 1910 to become Chief of Staff advised Perching: “You cannot disarm the people. It means they will bury their best arms and turn in a few poor ones, especially some who want to make a show of obedience.” Moros who surrendered their arms were victimized by those who had not….it is as hard to disarm a people as it is to make them give up a religious belief.


In a letter to Avery D. Andrews, Pershing put succinctly the apostolic creed to which he himself subscribed:
“It has been urged by some people at home that the Filipinos should be given their independence. Such a thing would result in anarchy. To whom should we turn over the government? Tagalog, Viscayan, Igorrote, Macabebe or Moro? No one can answer that any of these tribes represents the people in any sense, any more than the Sioux represents all the Indians in America. There is no national spirit, and except for the few agitators, these people do not want to try independence. They will have to be educated up to it and to self-government as we understand it, and their education will take some time and patience. It is a grand work cut out for us from which there should be no shirking.”
(Pipe Clay and Drill; John J. Pershing: The Classical American Soldier, Readers Digest Press, 1977. pp 100-153)
Thanks to Bernie for forwarding!


posted by Old Rebel @ Thursday, June 20, 2013
http://lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/06/winning-hearts-and-minds-in-philippines.html

[UWDude]

Thereis this little interesting story too, how the US fought a fake battle with Spain, to win the Philippines. Yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_%281898%29



The battle was jointly planned by the opposing Spanish and American forces to keep the city from falling to the large army of Filipinos under Emilio Aguinaldo.[1]

Can you imagine a conspiracy theorist figuring that one out?



And History repeated itself in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh thought America was a savior from the hated French, just like the Filipinos thought America was liberating them from the Spanish.

Poor asians. Or as Americans called filipinos, ni99ers.

[robert68]

But Japan’s bombing of ships and planes for 3 hours at Pearl Harbor, and then leaving, was far more inhumane than that was. Come on. :cool:

[Anti Federalist]

The United States took control of the Philippines in 1898, after it was ceded to them by Spain following the Spanish-American War.

A war justified by a falsehood, a "conspiracy theory".

That the Spanish fired on and sunk the USS Maine in Havana Harbor.

It never happened like government said:

The Maine is best known for her catastrophic loss in Havana Harbor on the evening of 15 February 1898. Sent to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly without warning and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry. Nevertheless, popular opinion in the U.S., fanned by inflammatory articles printed in the "Yellow Press" by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, blamed Spain. The phrase "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for action, which came with the Spanish–American War later that year. While the sinking of the Maine was not a direct cause for action, it served as a catalyst, accelerating the approach to a diplomatic impasse between the U.S. and Spain.

The cause of the Maine's sinking remains the subject of speculation. Suggestions have included an undetected fire in one of her coal bunkers, a naval mine and her deliberate sinking to drive the U.S. into a war with Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

[Origanalist]

Thereis this little interesting story too, how the US fought a fake battle with Spain, to win the Philippines. Yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_%281898%29



Can you imagine a conspiracy theorist figuring that one out?



And History repeated itself in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh thought America was a savior from the hated French, just like the Filipinos thought America was liberating them from the Spanish.

Poor asians. Or as Americans called filipinos, ni99ers.

The phrase truth is stranger than fiction is probably more accurate than even those of us exposed to such here all the time could imagine.

[heavenlyboy34]

Sounds like you people are questioning the Moral Authority(TM) of Amerika. Reported.