Past war offers Afghanistan lessons. And it's not Vietnam

[Monseratto]

Interesting read regarding the "near-genocidal" guerilla war conducted on our shores...

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/201...s-not-vietnam/

The war in the Philippines provoked skepticism among some Americans as well. For one, victory seemed implausible, said Paul Kramer, author of “The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States and the Philippines.”

Kramer said the U.S. military was small at the time. Filipino forces knew the terrain and had local support. The U.S. military had also never fought a guerilla war outside the mainland. (The 19th century wars against American Indians are considered guerilla war by some military historians.)

When they first started fighting, American soldiers struggled to adjust, Kramer said. Filipino guerillas attacked them and then blended in with the civilian population.

“American soldiers really found it disturbing and traumatizing. They didn’t know who was an enemy and who was an ally,” Kramer said.

Origins of the Philippine-American War
The Philippine-American War grew out another war, the 1898 Spanish-American War. The U.S. defeated Spain, which then ceded the Philippines to America. But Filipino forces that had been fighting for self-rule against Spain didn’t want to live under another occupier.

Filipino nationalists declared their independence, ratified a constitution, and elected a president. But the United States claimed the land, seized the Philippines in February of 1899 and war erupted.

All war is brutal, but several historians and military experts say the war in the Philippines was barbaric, even by military standards.

Yet the United States won, in part, because it was willing to be brutal, some military historians say. According to an official State Department account of the war, at least 4,200 American soldiers, 20,000 Filipino combatants and as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence and famine during the war.

Filipino fighters deliberately sought to drag the war on with hit-and-run tactics that would turn the American public against the war, historians say. It was the classic guerilla strategy: Win by avoiding big, pitched battles and melt into the civilian population.

But the U.S. military responded to the guerilla strategy with a simple strategy of their own, some historians say: Kill them all.

Civilian casualties were not accidental, but intentional, says Lt. Col. Michael E. Silverman, an Iraq war veteran and a counterinsurgency training consultant for the U.S. Army.

“Victory there was achieved by a brutal strategy of near genocide. … Many of the officers and sergeants who fought the war were veterans of the Indian Wars and brought with them the idea from Gen. Philip Sheridan: ‘The only good Indians I’ve seen were dead.’’’

The U.S. military forced Filipino villagers outside of their villages into population centers where they could be separated from guerillas. They killed villagers’ livestock and torched crops, says John Hinshaw, a history professor at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.

“They were the same tactics that worked against the Plains Indians in the 1870s and 1880s,” he says

“We killed hundreds of thousands of people in the process. A lot of it was due to disease and starvation. It was a very savage war.”

Too bad may media na di gagaya noon...

[oliver1013]

Ano nga kaya kung nanalo tayo? ok kaya tayo o mas masahol pa?

[Monseratto]

The Philippine-American war was highly sanitized in our history book. The only thing most Filipinos know is how it started and how it ended.

All war is brutal, but several historians and military experts say the war in the Philippines was barbaric, even by military standards.

[niky]

The Philippine-American war was highly sanitized in our history book. The only thing most Filipinos know is how it started and how it ended.

All wars in which the United States was a "bad guy" in the past were sanitized in the history books. Most people don't know about US atrocities in the Philippines, with the Japanese concentration camps on US Soil during WWII (strange that they didn't have German and Italian concentration camps, eh?... while my Japanese grandmother spent her time interred during the war, my German grandfather served in the US Air Force!).

History is written by the winners. And if there's one thing the US is good at... it's winning.

[Jun aka Pekto]

When was it sanitized? When I was there, I recall reading an old Philippine history book written by an American back in the 20's. The last historical entry was the Tokyo Quake of 1923.

I recall reading the chapters on the Philippine-American War. They mentioned clearly the 200,000 Philippine civilians who died, the "zones" which separated the guerillas from their support base, and certainly the tactics learned from the Indian Wars. Obviously, it got sanitized later on. The book also mentioned there were many Filipinos who were more than willing to help the Americans, for example the Macabebe Scouts used by Col. Funston to capture Aguinaldo. Also mentioned were the infighting among Pinoys a clear example is the death of General Luna.

I haven't read any new Philippine history books. But, they were already sanitized when I went there. By the time I had Philippine History in HS, I already knew all that stuff above. But, the teachers merely glossed over them.

[Monseratto]

The book also mentioned there were many Filipinos who were more than willing to help the Americans, for example the Macabebe Scouts used by Col. Funston to capture Aguinaldo. Also mentioned were the infighting among Pinoys a clear example is the death of General Luna.

Somethings never changed...hehehe.

[vito corleone]

When was it sanitized? When I was there, I recall reading an old Philippine history book written by an American back in the 20's. The last historical entry was the Tokyo Quake of 1923.

I recall reading the chapters on the Philippine-American War. They mentioned clearly the 200,000 Philippine civilians who died, the "zones" which separated the guerillas from their support base, and certainly the tactics learned from the Indian Wars. Obviously, it got sanitized later on. The book also mentioned there were many Filipinos who were more than willing to help the Americans, for example the Macabebe Scouts used by Col. Funston to capture Aguinaldo. Also mentioned were the infighting among Pinoys a clear example is the death of General Luna.

I haven't read any new Philippine history books. But, they were already sanitized when I went there. By the time I had Philippine History in HS, I already knew all that stuff above. But, the teachers merely glossed over them.

while the history books have been sanitized to favor the americans, accounts of some leftist historians e.g., renato constantino, are doubtably biased,too. you can somehow get a picture of what really happened during the philippine-american war, or any other segments in history, by reading some literary fictions which are plotted during those times. . .the characters may be fictitious but the social and political events described have truth in them to some extent. . .for example, the savagery of american soldiers were mentioned in the novel po-on by f. sionil jose. . .and of course, rizal's noli and el fili described not only the imperfections of some spanish friars but also the erratic nature of some filipinos

[donbuggy]

Ano nga kaya kung nanalo tayo? ok kaya tayo o mas masahol pa?

Possible scenarios if the Philippines won the Phil-Am War:

1) Democracy does not take root and the Philippines is under a series of dictators that grab power through violent coups (just like Haiti).

2) The USA becomes isolationist and does not enter World War I and II. An expansionist Japan invades China, Korea and Philippines. The USA does not intervene.

[Monseratto]

Possible scenarios if the Philippines won the Phil-Am War:

1) Democracy does not take root and the Philippines is under a series of dictators that grab power through violent coups (just like Haiti).

2) The USA becomes isolationist and does not enter World War I and II. An expansionist Japan invades China, Korea and Philippines. The USA does not intervene.

1) Maybe, the Philippines may have been broken up into different nations.

2) Highly unlikely.