"Splendid Little War; Long Bloody Occupation:

Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson"

William Loren Katz, April 28, 2004

Weapons of mass distruction, a slam-dunk war followed by a
no-end-in-sight occupation? We've been here before when a century ago
the U.S. first sent an army overseas to accomplish regime change and
liberate a resource-rich land from tyranny.

It began in February, 1898 when an explosion sunk the U.S. battleship
Maine in Havana harbor. Since Cubans lived under a cruel Spanish
colonialism, a pro-war U.S. press felt free to claim that Spain
unleashed a weapon of mass destruction, and to whip up "Remember the
Maine" fever. No weapon was ever found — it was a boiler explosion that
sank the Maine — and though Spain agreed to President McKinley's main
demands, Congress declared war with a promise to free Cuba.Secretary of State John Hay called it "a splendid little war" because in
less than a hundred days the U.S. liberated 13 million people and
165,000 square miles of colonies from Puerto Rico to Guam and the
Philippines, and with only 379 combat deaths. But disease and embalmed
meat war profiteers sold to the Army killed another 5,462 U.S. soldiers.

Leading the hawks in 1898 was a young, flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt, an
assistant secretary of the Navy who claimed war stimulated "spiritual
renewal," and the "clear instinct for racial selfishness." Not a man to
hide in the National Guard, TR personally led his "Rough Riders" at San
Juan Hill, and returned from Cuba with one regret — "there was not
enough war to go around." Now he was riding to the White House.

For two years General Emilio Aguinaldo and his freedom-fighting guerrilla
army had fought Spain's cruel occupation fully ready to govern a free
Philippines. But before he left for Cuba, TR sent Admiral George Dewey's
U.S. fleet to Manila Bay where it sank the Spanish fleet. Dewey assured
Aguinaldo the U.S. "had come to . . . free the Filipinos from the yoke
of Spain." But U.S. troops landed on Luzon, prevented Aguinaldo from
entering Manila, and Washington appointed a puppet government.

Filipinos first welcomed Americans as liberators. But in June when
Aguinaldo issued a declaration of independence, the pro-war U.S. press
began to demonize Aguinaldo, and a U.S. general told Congress that
Filipinos who wanted freedom had "no more idea of its meaning than a
shepherd dog."

President McKinley said he spent many sleepless nights agonizing about
the Philippines until God told him to keep the islands and "uplift and
civilize and Christianize them." The President called his program
"benevolent assimilation." The influential San Franciso Argonaut was
more candid: "We do not want the Filipinos. We want the Philippines. The
islands are enormously rich, but unfortunately, they are infested with
Filipinos."

A U.S. army of 70,000 [including 6,000 Black troops] was sent to pacify
the islands and, as more than one white soldier said, "just itching to
get at the niggers." General William Shafter told a journalist it might
be necessary to kill half the population to bring "perfect justice" to
the other half. After General Jack Smith promised to turn the
Philippines into a "howling wilderness" most casualties were civilians.
Smith defined the foe as any male or female "ten years and up," and told
his soldiers: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the
more you kill and burn the better it will please me."

U.S. officers encouraged the use of torture, murder of prisoners, and
massacre of villagers, including women and children. A Kansas soldier
wrote "The country won't be pacified until the niggers are killed off
like the Indians." Another white soldier reported brutal "sights you
could hardly believe" and he reached this conclusion: "A white man seems
to forget that he is human."

The U.S. had entered a quagmire. "The Filipino masses are loyal to
Aguinaldo and the government he leads," conceeded U.S. General Arthur
MacArthur. He thought the foe "needed bayonet treatment for at least a
decade." His time assessment proved prophetic. In early 1901 a U.S.
journalist concluded "that the Filipino hates U.S. . . permanent
guerrilla warfare will continue for years." He reported endless guerilla
attacks that took one or two U.S. lives at a time and created a "spirit
of bitterness in the rank and file of the army." A U.S. Red Cross worker
reported "American soldiers are determined to kill every Filipino in
sight" and said he saw "horribly mutilated Filipino bodies."

In March, 1901 U.S. officers saw victory when Aguinaldo was captured,
agreed to swear allegiance to the United States, and to persuade his
officers to accept amnesty. But quagmires can sink fond hopes. Six
months later guerillas on Samar attacked a U.S. garrison and massacred
45 U.S. officers and enlisted men with bolos and bare hands. The
occupation's most shocking defeat exposed U.S. propaganda about a
defeated foe and a easy occupation. The U.S. media compared Samar to
General Custer at the Little Big Horn, pro-imperialist editors talked
about being "hoodwinked," and The San Francisco Call reminded Americans
"a conquered people" do not remain conquered for long. "It is utterly
foolish to pretend . . . the end is in sight," admitted General Adna
Chaffee.

By 1902 U.S. Senate hearings and scores of Army court martial trials
found that U.S. occupying forces were guilty of "war crimes." General
Robert Hughes admitted he ordered the burning of villages and murder of
women and children. When asked by a Senator if this was "civilized
warfare," he answered, "these people are not civilized." The Baltimore
American wondered why the U.S. carried out "we went to war to banish."

President Teddy Roosevelt followed McKinley to the White House and
continued to justify the occupation, dismiss Filipinos as "Chinese
half-breeds," and to insist this was "the most glorious war in our
nation's history." Congress spent $170 million on its occupation.

Mark Twain, two former presidents and other prominent citizens formed an
Anti-Imperialist League that had tens of thousands attending protest
meetings and signing petitions that denounced U.S. atrocities and
imperial designs. One prominent African American bravely declared:"We
shall neither fight for such a country or with such an army" and many
others spoke out as well. The African American press stood united
against a U.S. government that exported its racist "deviltry" overseas,
and some labor unions began to connect the dots betw een overseas
imperialism and government suppression of strikes at home. 2,800
military actions continued until 1911, took 200,000 Filipino lives, and
the U.S. suffered 4,234 combat deaths. More than a dozen US servicemen
defected to Aguinaldo, and half of these were African Americans although
soliders of color comprised less than ten percent of the US army of
occupation.

Filipino independence came in 1945 but bitterness continued with
Washington support for brutal dictators such as Ferdinand Marcos who
looted his country for twenty years. Vice President George Walker Bush
arrived in Manila to praise Marcos' "adherence to democratic principles"
and the next year a massive, nonviolent uprising forced Marcos to flee.

On October 18, 2003 President George W. Bush came to Manila to promote
his war on terrorism. For the Philippine Congress, he rewrote history
when he said: "Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines."

Our first overseas venture a hundred years ago offers insights into our
occupation of Iraq. People always prefer self rule to a foreign master.
Resisting self-determination was unpleasant long ago, and it has not and
will not be pleasant now. Presidential lies come around to bite again.

[William Loren Katz is the author of forty books, and he adapted this essay
from his new book, The Cruel Years: American Voices at the Dawn of the 20th Century [Beacon Press, 2003]. His website is: williamlkatz.com.]