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Author Topic: THE USES AND ABUSES OF HISTORY
majorvictory
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2878

posted 24 October 2003 09:21 PM      Profile for majorvictory     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people," said President Bush to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines last week. "Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule."

quote:

Unfortunately, we then killed more than 200,000 Filipinos. Almost all of the dead were civilians, killed in the two years after we liberated them from the Spanish in 1898. One of our generals there, a cranky Civil War veteran named Jacob Smith, told his men: "I wish you to kill and burn ... I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."

"How young?" asked Maj. Waller Tazewell Waller (cq) of the U.S. Marines. "Ten years and up," said Gen. Smith.

None of this was secret at the time. American soldiers -- we sent 70,000 there after the Spanish colonial authority surrendered when Commodore George Dewey's fleet sailed into Manila Harbor -- wrote of the details in letters to hometown newspapers. Here are samples quoted in a new book, "Flyboys," by James Bradley:

"We bombarded a place called Malabon, and then went in and killed every native we met, men, women and children" ... "This shooting human beings is a 'hot game' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces" ... "Picking off niggers in the water is more fun than a turkey shoot" ... "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. Tell all my inquiring friends that I am doing everything I can for Old Glory and for America I love so well."

Back in Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt was calling that "the most glorious war in our nation's history." The Filipino victims he dismissed as "a syndicate of Chinese half-breeds."



From: Toronto | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Briguy
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Babbler # 1885

posted 24 October 2003 09:49 PM      Profile for Briguy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I know that he's ignorant on all aspects of history, but one would hope that one of his speech writers had some knowledge of American brutality in the Philippines. Then again, maybe he actually considered the American-occupied Philippines to be 'liberated'. Lord help the Iraqis if this is the case.
From: No one is arguing that we should run the space program based on Physics 101. | Registered: Nov 2001  |  IP: Logged
beluga2
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3838

posted 24 October 2003 11:41 PM      Profile for beluga2     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
one would hope that one of his speech writers had some knowledge of American brutality in the Philippines.

Either they don't, or they do and they don't care. These guys are professional liars, after all; they have no compunction about memory-holing inconvenient facts. (In this case, 200,000 of them.)


From: vancouvergrad, BCSSR | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged

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