Posted on 09/26/2001 11:13:15 AM PDT by Mahone
Boxer Lessons
The Boxer Rebellion and the war against terrorism.
By Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School.
Perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of our current crisis is the uncertainty of how to fight an enemy, which is largely unseen and incomprehensible. Americans have been shocked by the raw hatred that would sustain such attacks on innocent persons and the support of such terrorists by other nations. What is most frightening is the idea that we have never had to face such fanatical individuals and that we are facing the prospect of perpetual war. It is here that history can offer a degree of knowledge and perhaps a bit of comfort. While we often forget our past, we would be wise to consider an anniversary this month and a prior war against religious-based terrorists.
Almost exactly 100 years ago this month, the United States and an international coalition defeated a group called I Ho Ch'uan, or "the Righteous Harmonious Fists" in China. In 1900, China was the focus of international commerce — just as the Middle East is critical today. The presence of foreigners in China led to the establishment of a secret society that tied ancient Chinese religion and culture to a holy war against "foreign devils." Known as the Boxers because of a type of kickboxing practiced by their followers, these fanatics were initially opposed but later given support by the Chinese government. Like bin Laden, the Boxers wanted to kill or repel all foreigners from their sacred land. Similarly, like many of the terrorists today, the Boxers received passionate support from large segments of the population, particularly the poor.
As their power grew, Empress Dowager Ci Xi decided to appease the Boxers by sheltering their cells and allowing the growth of their organizations. Just as some governments today give protection to terrorist organizations, the Empress Dowager believed that she could protect her own government by allowing the Boxers to murder and terrorize foreigners and Chinese Christians. When she was asked to take sides with either the West or the terrorists, the Dowager chose the side of the terrorists.
Faced with unspeakable brutality by the Boxers and an attack on the Foreign Missions in Peking, an international coalition formed to oppose both the terrorists and the government that protected them. This coalition contained many of the same countries that are joining us today: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. After a siege of the foreign compound at Peking was broken, the Empress Dowager fled and the Boxers were destroyed despite their feared secret cell network. Once defeated by the international coalition, a group that was considered unrootable and unassailable simply vanished. So did the Dowager, whose government was fatally crippled in defeat.
One of the most interesting things about the Boxers is that they told their followers that Westerners were weak and easy to dominate. Among other things, they were told that the knees of Westerners did not bend and that, if you hit them, they would fall and could not get up. Islamic terrorists have their own bizarre conceptions but they share this view that, if hit hard enough, we will become immobilized. They lack knowledge of our history just as the Boxers lacked knowledge of our anatomy.
The point is that today's terrorists have more frightening weapons at their disposal but they are not unknown to us. We often forget the challenges that we have overcome and the enemies that we have faced. More importantly, in the face of such danger, we can forget about our unique capability to deal with such threats. The Madisonian democracy was designed to handle bad, not good, weather. The Framers even inserted provisions into the Constitution to deal with extreme emergencies, including such drastic measures as the suspension of habeas corpus. We have a constitutional and legal system that can adjust to new threats better than any system on Earth. The idea that we are rigid and unprepared is to ignore the greatest strength of the Madisonian democracy: Its ability to adapt quickly and decisively in the face of national crisis. To paraphrase the Boxers, we have a system with knees; a system that can bend, even when struck hard, and remain standing.
Perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of our current crisis is the uncertainty of how to fight an enemy, which is largely VISIBLE and COMPREHENSIBLE.
America is blind.
The people holding them are associated with this movement.
I thought about how we went in to China and stopped the Boxers who were killing Americans.
It is time to do it everywhere it is happening.
In the Philippines we have an allied government.
However, there is a more apt analogy than the Boxer Rebellion. It is the declaration of war against the Barbary pirates in 1806. That war named no nation as our enemy. It was prosecuted by the US Navy and Marines (so the Marine Hymn has the phrase, "to the shores of Tripoli") wherever the pirates were to be found on sea or land.
The Barbary Pirate War lasted either 9 or 10 years, since it ended with two Treaties. The first, with the "Bey of Algiers" was in 1815. An "Amended Treaty" was signed in 1816.
While in general I agree with Jonathan's conclusion that the US Constitution is able to deal with the demands of this situation, I note that as yet the US Congress has NOT issued a formal declaration of war in the War on Terrorists. The consequnces of that lack may be deadly for many more Americans than died on 9/11.
The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob,
cyberCongressman from Western Carolina
Their miserable unfullfilled selves--controlling mercilessly others creates much resentment--lonliness...is very frustrating to them. Death is most welcome to their pain-frustration!
The present war is Vietnam writ large, on a world-wide scale. Instead of provinces to concern us, we now have countries and areas as large as countries in which we must conduct operations if we are to be successful.
So far, the "pundits", "talkingheads" and government spokesmen have stated that the war will last for months. I think they all realize deep down that this fight will last for years.
Vietnam lasted for about 45 years, if one counts the years during which the French fought. The Cold War, which was also largely a "knife fight in the shadows" lasted about the same length of time.
The temptation is to hunker down and and "defend". If we do we are lost. It seems to me that we must do what our leaders are doing now: prepare to attack, then when we are ready, do it.
Ladies and Gents, we had better make up our minds that we are in for the long haul. There are a hellava lot of rocks to look under before we get all the SOBs that mean us harm.
I have a question. If one wants to indicate to a person that they are an idiot, how does one do it tactfully in a non-insulting way?
It was bad form for me to mention something that was contrary to morale building. Of course I DO want those who kill us to eat flaming death for breakfast. That will come in time.....maybe soon. I should retract.
Opium had nothing to do with the Boxer Rebellion. The author is a magnificent.
As a peanut gallery lurker, I must admire that one. (GR)
Pancho Villa, a cattle rustler and bandito in his youth, rose to become a General and division commander in the Revolution. He was a hero to many Mexicans and widely admired in America. He was a frequent visitor to El Paso and his division received significant amounts of arms and ammunition from American merchants untroubled by any interference from the Taft or Wilson administrations.
Stinger shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles had not yet been invented.
Villa's magnificent Divison del Norte was wrecked by General Obregon's army at Celaya and Leon, and finished off at Agua Prieta. Agua Prieta, Sonora is across the line from Douglas, Arizona, and Woodrow Wilson allowed the Federales to move troops on American railroads to reinforce Agua Prieta and run searchlights on American electricity. The searchlights that illuminated the Villista's night attack may even have been emplaced in Arizona.
Pancho had pretty good press in the US and several American soldiers of fortune and journalists had been tolerated in his army, but he developed a bad attitude towards Uncle Sam and Woodrow Wilson after Agua Prieta. In January, 1916, he and what was left of his army, a small squadron of irregular cavalry, stopped a train in Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, took off 18 American mining engineers and shot 17 of them out of hand.
Woodrow Wilson declared the massacre an internal matter for Mexico to deal with.
In the wee hours of March 9, 1916 he hit Columbus, New Mexico. Half his outfit bit the dust, but he killed 8 civilians and 7 US Cavalry troopers and burned much of the town.
The US Army in 1916 had no Military Intelligence branch, no G-2. Two Mexican cowboys had reported Villistas 15 miles south of the border to the 13th Cavalry Regimental Commander. No changes were made to the dispostion of this regiment to meet an attack.
The attack galvanized America. World War I was raging in France, the Germans had sunk the Lusitania, and America was woefully unprepared for war. The whole US Army consisted of 128,000 men in 17 regiments of Coast Artillery, 6 regiments of Field Artillery, 31 Infantry regiments and 15 cavalry regiments.
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker told Army Chief of Staff Hugh Scott " I want you to start an expedition into Mexico to catch Villa."
"Mr. Secretary," Scott replied, "do you want the United States yo make war on one man? Suppose he should get on a train and go to Guatemala, Yucutan or South America. Are you going to go after him?
"Well, no, I am not," Baker replied.
"That is not what you want, then," Scott pointed out. "You want his band captured or destroyed."
Yes, that is what I really want," Baker said.
BG "Black Jack" Pershing crossed the border with 4,800 men and 4,175 animals March 15, 1916. He was not allowed to use the Mexican Railroads to move or supply his army. Washington forbade him the use of Mexican towns for bases, overnight accomodations or R&R.
He never did get Pancho. The Federales who were supposed to be hunting him too turned on the US Cavalry at Parral and Carrizal. War was almost declared on the US by the de facto governement of Mexico.
The entire National Guard was called up and sent to the border.
The Punitive Expedition went back to Columbus February 5, 1917. Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany the next month. America had entered the Great War.
Oops! I wasn't going to say anything but as long as someone else said it.....did you know that after some official (I forgot which) added lime to the opium rendering it useless, the British traders demanded payment for the spoiled opium and China paid it?
Are you seriously flaming someone for pointing out that this article is shoddy in the extreme?
By analogy will you describe the complaints of those terrorists who have killed 7,000 people and those who are chopping off heads in the Philippines?
Then address the significance of the complaints concerning our future actions in response.
Perhaps back to the historical aspects you could make the connection between a secret society murdering missionaries and other foreigners with opium.
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