| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| Left predicting doom and gloom for liberated Iraqis |
| 2003-03-19 |
| I think his is related because... the sage elitist left, feeling bitter over the prospect of Iraqi's dancing in the streets, has revealed their new set of talking points which will allow them to cling to their delusion of superior wisdom for years to come. In order justify their failed views and continue to obstruct all things American ...I present to you the left's new and improved, doom-gloom, Anti-American talking points... ta da..... you heard it first here folks! George W. Bush says American armies come to the Middle East as liberators, not conquerors; he swears the US has "no intention of determining the precise form of Iraq's new government" after a war. The Iraqi opposition welcomed his words, but they should take careI feel a cold breeze across my neck. Washington's line echoes the failed ambitions of past US leaders to invent a benevolent imperialism. Mr Bush's reputed role model, William McKinley, sought to distinguish the US from the colonising nations of Europe by bringing democracy to the Philippines. Instead he brought terror and mayhem to US soldiers and Filipinos alike. The terror and brutal mayhem that already existed...will be ignored in this article...go figure. Hawks in the McKinley administration believed the world would benefit from greater US naval power and overseas influence. In 1898 the USS Maine blew up while at anchor off the Spanish colony of Cuba. Subsequent investigations found no link between the explosion and the government of Spain, but the incident sparked a war that the hawks wanted. The US paused briefly in its I didn't edit out...but I wanted to share with you the tone of the paranoia. Editing out much of the McKinley through divine guidance declared... US armies had come to prove, that Asians too might enjoy "that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of free peoples". The US landed not only marines but schoolteachers on Philippine shores, bringing textbooks and munitions alike. And indeed, literacy rates rose. Mortality rates from malaria and cholera fell. New roads and schools sprang up. So did some civic institutions, run by Filipinos who welcomed the chance to govern. ah..but for lefties, trouble always lurks beneath a happy surface But trouble plagued the new colony from the start. As Senator Henry Cabot Lodge mildly noted: "Those people whom we liberated down there have turned against us." An army of 75,000 Filipinos began to fight a guerrilla war against their benevolent occupiers. US forces laid waste to the surrounding country. News of such terrorism and indiscriminate response brought the war to a sputtering halt - although US troops stayed in the islands and rebels remained in the wilderness, as they do today. The Philippines did not attain independence, let alone democracy, until 1946. Mr Bush now cites the democratic postwar reconstruction of Japan and Germany as precedents. What is the pupose of the word, "now" in this statement, was he previously using the Phillipines as his example? But in 1945 the US ranked first among equals as peacemakers, leading a co-operative international project to rebuild shattered opponents as opposed to our unilateral uncooperative efforts today. For the old Axis powers, Americans wrote new constitutions reflecting international aspirations, including measures more progressive than US customs. The present effort to keep other nations at arm's length scoff, promising to bring to Iraq a uniquely US experience of war and its aftermath, means there is something old in store for the new axis of enemieswhooooo . Feel free to delete if not relevant, but there you have it my friends! Iraqi people beware, we will bring you school books, health, wealth and your mortality rates will drop. But terror and brutal oppression awaits you! but um...it's already there. ah..details! |
| Posted by:becky |
| #4 I think the important bit about the Phillipines action was that after cleaning things up the US set forth a plan to grant independence (a move I doubt the Europeans would have considered). The Japanese stepped in and took over the islands and the Filipinos helped the US because they knew the offer of independence was real. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-03-19 14:20:54 |
| #3 Not exactly, Chuck. The Moslems came a bit later. There were quite a few factions and political entities, beginning with the revolutionary government--"the Malolos Republic"--lead by Emilio Aguinaldo, and made up largely of the leaders spearheading the main independence movement. These were the forces that were finished "early," after Aguinaldo's capture in 1901. The Moslem fighters managed to keep fighting until about 1913. |
| Posted by: AW 2003-03-19 12:24:01 |
| #2 Right-o. They're pre-emptively covering their ass, which means they actually do grasp the concept of "pre-emption", and are just hyper-selective in WHO is allow to perform it. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-03-19 12:18:56 |
| #1 So, the actions of the United States in 1900 portend the results of the Liberation of Iraq over a century later? BTW, it was a MOSLEM guerrilla force that rose up, and after some effort was destroyed. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-03-19 09:57:57 |