A precedent for Iraq?

July 20, 2008 on 4:36 pm | In Uncategorized |

The USA has been involved in so many major wars since its inception that it’s easy to forget the small ones. For example, few people would know much about the invasion and occupation of The Philippines that began in 1898.

It started almost by accident. The Philippines was a Spanish colony and the US got itself into a war with Spain over events half a world away in Cuba. A US fleet routed its Spanish counterpart in Manila Bay and eventually American troops landed, just as the locals were declaring independence and calling themselves a national government. The yanks quickly threw out the Spaniards and occupied their fortifications and a period of increasing tension ensued, during which the Filipinos kept saying “Thanks for that now will you please piss off and let us run our own country” or words to the effect, to which the US kept responding “Hang on, we’re still thinking about things.” Eventually an American started shooting and the next thing there was a full-scale conflict.

The yanks, having been ceded the place by Spain in the peace treaty, quickly decided that the Filipinos were incapable of looking after themselves and sent in more troops to pacify the place. A surge, you might call it. Having announced that they were the lawful government, they condemned any Filipino who tried to stand up for independence as an insurgent. More than 4,000 American troops lost their lives in the ensuing war, along with an unknown but much larger number of Filipino irregulars. Nobody knows for sure but it’s generally agreed that about 200,000 civilians lost their lives. Back home in Main Street USA, it was all justified as being for the Filipinos’ own good.

Sounding familiar?

Once peace was finally declared, the decision-makers in the USA spent years discussing what was to be done with the place. Naturally they professed nothing but altruistic motives based purely on the interests of the Filipino people, although strangely enough whenever an actual Filipino leader appeared in Washington to argue a case he was quickly told to shut up and go back to Manila. This was a Serious Matter that had to be decided by grown-ups.

A series of puppet administrations ensued under the control of American governors and generals. Eventually, after Macarthur had done his “I will return” schtick in the Second World War, and the yanks had secured the bases they wanted (or so they believed), they granted the republic independence, although they continued to dominate the islands’ commerce and interfered extensively in their politics. Within 20 years, The Philippines was under the control of the Marcos dictatorship.

To this day, The Philippines bears more resemblance to a feudal society than it does to any Western conception of a democracy, and the economic development that has occurred in most Asian countries has conspicuously passed the nation by.

John McCain and other apologists for the occupation of Iraq are fond of citing Japan and Germany and South Korea as precedents for what they hope will happen in Iraq.They might consider whether The Philippines provides a more informative case study for the effects of prolonged US occupation.

4 Comments »

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  1. A few years ago someone recommended that I have a read of a book called Little Brown Brothers which provided me with an account of this war. I’d never even heard of it before. I read with horror about the torture employed against the Filipino population and the overtly imperialist rhetoric employed in Washington as the future role of the Philippines in US empire was discussed. The language was pretty raw, but certainly has echoes in some of the more robust neo-con language employed today. The terror tactics remain the same, too.

    Comment by Toaf — July 20, 2008 #

  2. It started almost by accident

    Oddly enough I believe (quickly googles) the Spanish American war of 1898. Which also saw the US get it’s hooks into Guam, Puerto Rico & Cuba as well as the Philippines started with the sinking of the USS Maine this was blamed on the Spanish.

    In 1976, a US Navy commission found it was probably an accident. This has been disputed since by a National Geographic survey.

    Don’t get me started on the USS Maddox!!

    Comment by Anonymous — July 21, 2008 #

  3. It started almost by accident

    Oddly enough I believe (quickly googles) the Spanish American war of 1898. Which also saw the US get it’s hooks into Guam, Puerto Rico & Cuba as well as the Philippines started with the sinking of the USS Maine this was blamed on the Spanish.

    In 1976, a US Navy commission found it was probably an accident. This has been disputed since by a National Geographic survey.

    Comment by Jack Dorf — July 21, 2008 #

  4. The Filipinos were absolutely brutalised by the Spanish for 400 years, then won the good fortune to receive likewise treatment from the yanks. A beaten and cowed nation of delightfully lovely people who deserved far better.

    The Yanks only pissed off after Mother Nature finally stepped in and erupted the ancient volcano Mt. Pinatubo on June 15th 1991, right next to the Clark USAF airbase, virtually within the circuit area of the aerodrome. With the lease on the base up for renewal at that time, the Yanks were forced to slink off home after this greatest of eruptions, described as the world’s most violent and destructive volcanic event of the 20th century, smothered their precious base with two metres of volcanic ash. (A good indicator of what strength is required if you want to dislodge the US military from your own town or country.)

    The upside, I suppose, is this wondrous act from the heavens undoubtedly saved thousands of nearby pregnancies, diseases and traumas to the locals of Angeles City, the USAF’s brothel town adjacent to the base.

    But with great misfortune, the Filipinos adopted Catholicism wholeheartedly from their Spanish overlords and now enthusiastically and stupidly endorse it by adhering to the dogma fanatically. Especially where the Pope commands them not to use contraception.

    As a direct result they live in today’s fuedal ghettos of impoverishment where most families have 10-12 kids each which they most certainly can’t afford to feed.

    Yes, I suppose this was a precedent for Iraq, akin to the endless list of other cowed nations that have felt the steel jackboots of America’s giant steamroller military. I just feel saddened that they (the Filo’s) didn’t pick up the ball and run when the Yanks quit instead of wallowing in the retrogressive uselessness of religion which has consigned them all to permanent penury.

    Comment by Doug from the Gold Coast — July 23, 2008 #

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