Facing Up to America's Shameful & Sinful Past of Muderous Imperialism
When I was younger, it was easy to be a reactionary defender of the United States of America in history. That reactionary nature was hardened by the tactics of the political Left to attack and malign America's heroes and heritage: and summing up American history as a festival of slave oppression, indian killing, and imperial capitalism violently suppressing organized labor. But as I grew older, I came to realize that the U.S. government wasn't always altruistic in its aims... that it was frequently seized by selfish and corrupt interests, and could pursue the most naked acts of aggression, oppression, and violence, so as to disturb the human conscience.
The Philippine-American War was one such example of a shameful and avoidable war where countless Filipinos died at American hands.
As Philadelphia Ledger writer J. Franklin Bell reported: “Our men have been relentless; have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives ... from lads of 10 and up, an idea prevailing that the Filipino, as such, was little better than a dog... Our men have pumped salt water into men to ‘make them talk’ ... [then] stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down as an example to those who found their bullet-riddled corpses.” Needless to say, America didn’t give the Filipinos independence. McKinley justified U.S. occupation by saying that it was our duty to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, who were largely already Roman Catholics. But the U.S. Government did little to 'Christianize,' instead it engaged in a cruel-hearted and brutal systematic ethnic cleansing of dissidents, and even those mildly associated with dissidents including women and children. It was amoral and reprehensible, and a blight on the American memory. Some newspapers were honest; others engaged in yellow journalism and warhawkism accusing the Filipinos of killing their own people and burning down their own villages, as Fighting Joe Wheeler dubiously claimed.
Writer Mark Twain opposed the war by using his influence in the press. He felt it betrayed American ideals and was little more than naked imperialism, masking under altruistic ideological claims of a benevolent civilizing imperialism:
General Jacob H. Smith's infamous order "KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN" was the caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. (Click the picture to the right to enlarge the picture.) The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. The bottom caption exclaimed, "Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines." Published in the New York Journal-American, May 5, 1902.
The Philippine-American War was one such example of a shameful and avoidable war where countless Filipinos died at American hands.
As Philadelphia Ledger writer J. Franklin Bell reported: “Our men have been relentless; have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives ... from lads of 10 and up, an idea prevailing that the Filipino, as such, was little better than a dog... Our men have pumped salt water into men to ‘make them talk’ ... [then] stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down as an example to those who found their bullet-riddled corpses.” Needless to say, America didn’t give the Filipinos independence. McKinley justified U.S. occupation by saying that it was our duty to civilize and Christianize the Filipinos, who were largely already Roman Catholics. But the U.S. Government did little to 'Christianize,' instead it engaged in a cruel-hearted and brutal systematic ethnic cleansing of dissidents, and even those mildly associated with dissidents including women and children. It was amoral and reprehensible, and a blight on the American memory. Some newspapers were honest; others engaged in yellow journalism and warhawkism accusing the Filipinos of killing their own people and burning down their own villages, as Fighting Joe Wheeler dubiously claimed.
Writer Mark Twain opposed the war by using his influence in the press. He felt it betrayed American ideals and was little more than naked imperialism, masking under altruistic ideological claims of a benevolent civilizing imperialism:
There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it — perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands — but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector — not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now — why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.
General Jacob H. Smith's infamous order "KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN" was the caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. (Click the picture to the right to enlarge the picture.) The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. The bottom caption exclaimed, "Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines." Published in the New York Journal-American, May 5, 1902.
This dovetails with Thomas Woods lecture on Anti-Imperialism. Thanks.
Posted by
JA |
10:02 PM