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Blowback for American sins in the Philippines
Boston Globe ^ | October 16, 2016 | Stephen Kinzer

Posted on 10/23/2016 4:41:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

SOMETIMES AMERICANS THINK we have won a war, only to realize years or decades later that our victory was incomplete. Now we are facing an eruption of anger over a war we waged more than a century ago. Rarely has blowback from an overseas intervention come back to haunt us so long after the shooting stopped.

This unexpected challenge has emerged from the Philippines. The new president, Rodrigo Duterte, recently announced plans to pull his country out of America’s orbit and adopt an “independent” foreign policy. “I am anti-West,” he explained. “I do not like the Americans. It’s simply a matter of principle for me.”

Duterte’s grievance is rooted in history. Americans, he asserted, unjustly seized the Philippines in 1899, waged a horrific military campaign to suppress native resistance, and “have not even apologized to the Filipino nation.” He waved photographs showing bodies of Filipinos killed in that war.

Soon after Duterte made that startling speech, his foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, went even further. In 1899, Yasay asserted, the United States “arrogated our victory in the struggle for freedom” and then used “invisible chains” to bind Filipinos into “shackling dependency.” Americans, he said, treat Filipinos as “little brown brothers not capable of true independence or freedom.” To escape from that humiliation, he concluded, the Philippines must end its “subservience to United States interests.”

Most Americans would have no idea what these new Filipino leaders are talking about. We forgot the Philippine War long ago. Filipinos remember it vividly. It stands with the horrors of Japanese occupation during World War II as one of their great national traumas. A very old debt is finally coming due.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: duterte; philippines
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To: TADSLOS

That was hung in one of the hall ways at my AIT Company at Ft. Monmouth, NJ


21 posted on 10/23/2016 5:02:22 PM PDT by ASA Vet (Trump is the first Presidential candidate since Reagan for whom I have WANTED to vote.)
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To: mrsmith
We’ve become a bad ally. Weak, poor and distracted.

Yeah but we're not interested in taking the Spratly Islands or the Scarborough Shoal away from the Philippines. Can Duterte say the same about China?

22 posted on 10/23/2016 5:05:22 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: SeekAndFind

The sin of dying to fight the Japanese on Philippine soil.


23 posted on 10/23/2016 5:08:11 PM PDT by sunrise_sunset
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Boston Glop. ‘Nuff Said.


24 posted on 10/23/2016 5:08:36 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Je Suis Pepe)
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To: DoodleDawg

China will develop the islands and give Phillipines a cut.

We can’t defend Phillipines claims and can’t afford to develop the islands.
What good are we?


25 posted on 10/23/2016 5:09:02 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: TADSLOS

These “natives” were...MUSLIMS!!!I read that the Army stated that the women took part in the rebellion dressed as men, and the men used children as human shields. This sounds rather familiar! /s


26 posted on 10/23/2016 5:09:11 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: SeekAndFind

So how did the Spaniards treat them?


27 posted on 10/23/2016 5:14:32 PM PDT by brianr10 (I'm more equal than everyone.)
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To: CivilWarBrewing

Giving isis more ideas?


28 posted on 10/23/2016 5:19:12 PM PDT by US_MilitaryRules (The last suit you wear has no pockets!)
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To: brianr10

Good question. I’m sure that the locals did most of the fighting and most of the dying in WW2. Still MacArthur was the hero. That’s why we don’t know what happened 120 years ago. Since so many are now Americans I would think they would tire of him eventually but like Obama once elected they have plento of time to do damage.


29 posted on 10/23/2016 5:22:39 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: mrsmith
China will develop the islands and give Phillipines a cut.

Sure they will.

30 posted on 10/23/2016 5:31:27 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: brianr10

Indeed. The enemy of the Philippine Islands was imperialism. Now, they get to go to hell in their own basket.


31 posted on 10/23/2016 5:33:09 PM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Duterte’s grievance is rooted in history.

Nothing to do with President Golfy McMuslim and his Secretary of Lurch, of course.

32 posted on 10/23/2016 5:34:53 PM PDT by dead
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To: SeekAndFind
.. American sins in the Philippines

If not for us, the Japs would've killed the VAST majority of Phillipinos .. some outright, the rest by slave laboring them to death.

Australia's close enough to that theatre .. pull ALL our assets out ASAP and the ungrateful bastards can ESAD.

33 posted on 10/23/2016 5:36:19 PM PDT by tomkat
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I completely agree with you on this. If Clinton were to win, we are going to get our butts kicked from all around the world.


34 posted on 10/23/2016 5:41:20 PM PDT by Gator113 (Vote TRUMP!! -- "Because you'd be in Jail!")
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To: SeekAndFind

All I can say is bye,bye. The islands mean nothing to us. This new leadership that the Philippines has elected is another example of despotism.


35 posted on 10/23/2016 5:48:53 PM PDT by Destroyer Sailor (Revenge is a dish best served cold.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What’s he going to do when China lays claim to Philippines undersea territory for the oil and fish and mineral wealth?

I don’t blame him for questioning America’s commitment, because Obama has been hostile to affirming friendly ties, but China has no problem taking a country’s wealth until there is nothing but clay earth. That’s what they are doing in Africa right this second.


36 posted on 10/23/2016 5:50:24 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: bk1000
I doubt this has anything to do with the Spanish/American War era stuff...that's just window dressing for the public.

This is about America no longer being a creditable ally wrt to countering China.

37 posted on 10/23/2016 5:56:32 PM PDT by Red Dog #1
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Not so simple, back in the day. Many[Thousands and thousands] Filipinos were promised US citizenship if they fought against the japs. Truman and Congress reneged on their offer and set the stage for mistrust for decades to come.
38 posted on 10/23/2016 6:00:40 PM PDT by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: SeekAndFind

What really happened was that the RP devolved into corruption everywhere, and dependency on the US was easier for RP than taking the route that, say, Singapore, S. Korea, or Taiwan has.


39 posted on 10/23/2016 6:02:43 PM PDT by Paul R.
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To: Theoria

It would have been better to make the Philippines a territory of the US.


40 posted on 10/23/2016 6:02:58 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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