Posted on 11/12/2017 4:45:49 AM PST by DFG
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sits down for his first face-to-face bilateral meeting with President Trump on Monday in Manila, he will come to the table with an unusual request.
Duterte wants the United States to return war trophies seized more than 100 years ago: three historic church bells that were taken from the Philippine village of Balangiga after a bloody clash during the Philippine-American War.
In 1899, fighting broke out between U.S. troops and Filipino nationalists after Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the U.S. following Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War. The nationalists seized control of the main island in the Philippines and declared a republic, vowing not to succumb to American imperial rule. More than 200,000 Filipino civilians and 4,800 American troops died in the ensuing conflict, which formally ended in 1902 as the U.S. suppressed the uprising.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
so the most was the bells from a hundred years ago? That makes no sense. Who gives a rats ass about the bells. Give em back.
Paging Monty Hall?
Please go to the white courtesy phone.
It was a land grab. We wanted cuba since the 1950s but other things kept getting in the way. The Flips gave us a navy base near China.
since the 1850s
I'd have to agree. The bells mean little enough to us. I think returning them would probably generate a disproportionate amount of goodwill. We are Americans. We can afford to be magnanimous occasionally.
Two are on a military base in Wyoming that's closed to the public and the other is on display on a base in South Korea.
Trump should be able to work out a deal around this provided Congress gives him the authority.
Filipinos also risked life and limb smuggling drugs and bandages to POW’s.
I read one book about the Filipino guerrillas when I was younger that left an impression. I think it was An American Guerrilla In The Phillipines.
The author spent most of the book talking about his actions fighting alongside the Filipinos.
They never had enough rifles, ammunition or medicine but never lacked courage.
Filipinos went out of their way and put themselves in grave danger to hide and assist Americans whenever they could.
Sadly, after the war the US paid Chinese, Burmese and other groups who formed guerrilla groups but left the Filipinos out.
Not until 1965 did the US provide partial payment to Filipino fighters disabled by their wartime service.
“I’d have to agree. The bells mean little enough to us. I think returning them would probably generate a disproportionate amount of goodwill. We are Americans. We can afford to be magnanimous occasionally.”
Considering the bells are housed In high security areas where no one could see them I consider it a No Brainer.
The people of the Phillipines get their bells back, President Trump gets to look magnanimous and Duterte gets to look like a bigger player to his people.
Win, Win, Win.
“We seized church bells? Return them. We should NEVER have taken items that belong to churches.
Now, if it was a mosque minaret. . .”
I agree. Return them. No big deal.
Because it will simply be the tip of an iceberg. What is past is past. Digging up any and every little thing from the past is counterproductive. You want to giveback all the lands taken from native Americans?
How about kicking the Muslims out of the philippine? No church bells for them.
she said they were taught that Americans were heroes.
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Maybe that’s why they kicked the Navy out of the Philippines, then when endangered again recently, asked the Americans back.
Find the most conservative Roman Catholic bishop in the US, and let him escort them back to the Phillipines and turn them over to his Filipino counterpart. Take the politics out of it.
They were fighting for their own survival and needed Americans to set them free from the Japs. i had a dear long time friend who survived the Bataan death march. He escaped on his own.
The bells have significance to the Philippines. You are engaging in hyperbole to use the analogy of lands we took by force from the indians.
They want the bells as a symbol of resisting American Colonialism. Not exactly the kind of sentiment we wish to encourage.
Yes, the significance is resisting America. You think this is a message we should encourage?
Yeah let’s teach them Flips a lesson. Idiot.
Thank you for the link to the history lesson.
“Wasn’t Duterte bad-mouthing Trump not that long ago?”
yep. said he’d never meet with trump ...
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