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Home Front: WoT
Trump cites tale of Gen. Pershing's pigs' blood bullets that historians dismiss
2017-08-18
[FoxNews] President Trump on Thursday again cited a story about the late U.S. Army Gen. John J. Pershing dipping bullets in pigs' blood to deter Islamic attacks that has been dismissed by historians as apocryphal.

"Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught," the president tweeted. "There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!"

Trump's tweet on Thursday followed the attack in Barcelona, Spain, where a car plowed into a crowd, killing and injuring pedestrians.

The general story is one Trump told – and was criticized for – during the presidential race.

Speaking of Pershing's role after the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, Trump praised the general during a rally in North Charleston, S.C., in February of last year.

"They were having terrorism problems, just like we do," Trump said at the time.

The president went on to say Pershing ordered his men to dip bullets in the blood of pigs, since pork is forbidden in Islam.

"He lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people," Trump said. "And the 50th person, he said: 'You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened.' And for 25 years, there wasn't a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn't a problem."

During the campaign, the fact-checking website Politifact referred to the story as a "dubious legend."

"This story is a fabrication and has long been discredited," Brian McAllister Linn, a Texas A&M University, told Politifact. "I am amazed it is still making the rounds."

While historians dismiss the tale of dipping bullets in pigs' blood, Pershing did tell a story about using pigs to deter terrorist attackers in his memoir.

"The bodies were publicly buried in the same grave with a dead pig," Pershing wrote. "It was not pleasant to have to take such measures, but the prospect of going to hell instead of heaven sometimes deterred the would-be assassins."
I remember reading about Pershing dipping bullets in pigs blood sometime in the last century. Can anyone verify this?
True or false, now absolutely everyone will be talking about it. And the jihadis will wonder if the next American bullet they encounter will send them permanently to Hell instead of Paradise. Master Persuader master class.
Posted by:Seeking cure for ignorance

#18  'Tap, tap' with the Kabar and the slug bears the sign of The Cross. Use it on the .45s to send little missionaries.
Posted by: Skidmark   2017-08-18 22:38  

#17  The story I heard is that the Sepoy Mutiny in colonial India was triggered by a British officer telling Muslim troops that the bullets for their rifles were lubricated with pig fat.
Posted by: ed in texas   2017-08-18 21:30  

#16  In the book Empire of the Seas, there is an accounting of the defenders putting fat on the bullets, which, if hit, would ignite the clothing of the Ottomans.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2017-08-18 20:37  

#15  Well, there are historians and then there are people who were there. Old man confessed that before hitting the islands in the Pacific, some of them would modify their bullets to make them dum dum rounds. Nothing official, but then again, troops would take their own initiative. So, technically, there is no record of our boys using such round. Historians searching the 'records' wouldn't find it either.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-08-18 19:11  

#14  I had plenty of garlic with dinner - just in case.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-18 13:24  

#13  g(r)omgorum I;m sorry to hear that. All I can say is you should thank your drill sergeant, you're still alive today aren't you?
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance   2017-08-18 13:19  

#12  Add in the same strategy that Gen. Sheridan used in the Shenandoah campaign.

Posted by: DarthVader   2017-08-18 11:21  

#11  "This story is a fabrication and has long been discredited," Brian McAllister Linn, a Texas A&M University [professor?], told Politifact. "I am amazed it is still making the rounds."

Seldom, do those who write the history books actually know what goes on in wars.
Posted by: JohnQC   2017-08-18 11:20  

#10  I don't know about Pershing but the British in India
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-18 11:09  

#9  Silver Bullet Gun oil made out of pig's fat to put Jihadist down
Posted by: 3dc   2017-08-18 11:04  

#8  Bacon - what can't it do?
Posted by: Anomalous Sources   2017-08-18 10:35  

#7  Back in my yoot, I read a biography of Pershing that said the Moro's were buried with entrails and blood of pigs. The graves were shown to the condemned first then the person was shot. Usually with others as witnesses and they carried the stories back to the other Moros.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2017-08-18 09:49  

#6  I remembered this, or something similar...

Form Wiki -

Moro Rebellion (1899–1913) was an armed conflict between the Moro people and the United States military.

The word "Moro" is a term for ethnic Muslims who lived in the Southern Philippines, an area that includes Mindanao, Jolo and the neighboring Sulu Archipelago.

Tactics

Pershing wrote the following in his autobiography, about the juramentado:[65]‬

These juramentado were materially reduced in number by a practice the army had already adopted, one that the Mohammedans held in abhorrence. The bodies were publicly buried in the same grave with a dead pig. It was not pleasant to take such measures but the prospect of going to hell instead of heaven sometimes deterred the would-be assassins.[66][67][68]

Though Pershing inflicted this treatment upon captured juramentado,[69]‬ regarding it as an unpleasant measure,[70][71] there is no proof that he used other similar tactics.[72]
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2017-08-18 03:53  

#5  Seeking, thank you very much, you caused me to remember my platoon sergeant in basic - I haven't thought of him for 40 years. We called him (behind his back) Dracula. I'll probably have nightmares tonight.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-18 03:07  

#4  No, as long as you only dip the tip and let it dry while upside down. Doesn't take much.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance   2017-08-18 03:00  

#3  I remember reading about Pershing dipping bullets in pigs blood sometime in the last century. Can anyone verify this?

Wouldn't this foul the bore?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-18 02:33  

#2  In the interest of Science, I say we try it and see if it works.
Posted by: SteveS   2017-08-18 01:13  

#1  I would suspect that most American bullets send jihadis straight to Hell.
Posted by: jvalentour   2017-08-18 00:30  

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