Fighting Islam's Fierce Moro Warriors (America's first jungle war)

Military History Magazine ^ | April 2002 | David S. Woolman

[Sparta]

America’s first war with suicidal Islamic warriors took place a century ago in the Philippines and rings familiar today as the Moros continue what they call ‘the longest, bloodiest struggle for freedom in history.’

By David S. Woolman for Military History Magazine

America’s first jungle war remains largely unknown, except in the Philippines where it began in 1900. Even those rare Americans who have heard of the U.S. jungle war against the Moros often connect it erroneously with the Philippine Insurrection. But with world attention now riveted upon Islamic jihad, we can expect to learn more about the volatile Islamic Moros, especially since they openly supported Afghanistan’s Taliban government and are an ongoing problem for the Philippine government.

Mutual revulsion between the Islamic Moros of the southern Philippines and the Western world goes back a long way. For more than two centuries before their defeat by U.S. forces at the end of the 1800s, Spain attempted unsuccessfully to subjugate the diminutive but fanatical Muslim Moros, who average slightly over 5 feet in height. Spanish soldiers had been captured by the Moros, dragged into the jungle and tortured for hours on end, finally dying in utter agony over a slow fire after being emasculated. Add to that the Moro practices of polygamy, slavery and rape of infidels, and it is easy to see why the American forces in 1898 saw Moros as horror and depravity incarnate.

[VOA]

JMB Bump!

John Moses Browning...what a genius...

[denoferth]

A small correction: The 1911 was not ready so the .45 Colt was resurrected and deployed first.

[denoferth]

You are correct about it being the first jungle war but it was not America’s first war with suicidal Islamic warriors. Our first encounter with Muslims was when American marines fought the Barbary pirates soon after the American Revolution.