It’s imperialism, stupid! (or, Why Bush won)

[NVMojo]

y MANUEL F. ALMARIO

To help us understand why the Americans reelected President George Bush despite his big blunder in Iraq—where hundreds of Americans are dying—we may go back to the Spanish-American war in 1898. The war made Cuba a protectorate of the United States and the Philippines first US colony in Asia.

In 1900, when President William McKinley, a Republican like Bush, ran for a second term, the primary issue raised against him by the Democrats was “US imperialism” which, they said, was contrary to America’s Declaration of Independence that proclaimed the right of all men to “Liberty.” The annexation of the Philippines by the United States had become a hot issue especially after the US launched an undeclared war against the Filipinos in February 1899.

The Philippine-American war dragged on officially for four years, developing into a guerrilla war that cost the Americans nearly 5,000 dead and the Filipinos an estimated 500,000 dead, half of them civilians. The war actually stretched on for almost another 10 more years, shifting to Mindanao, where the Americans had to develop the .45-caliber revolver to knock down the Filipino Muslims who had declared jihad against the US occupation forces and were bloodying their ranks through suicide attacks. Not knowing at that time how to make bombs, the Filipino mujaheedins were armed only with the Moro kris. They were then called juramentados (crazed warriors), now, “terrorists.”

more...

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=Opinion&OID=64056

[oldhat]

1. This isn't news, this is an editorial/analysis.

Please post it in the editorial forum. Thanks.

[cavanaghjam]

2. Bush won

because just enuff morons were afraid that Islamist queers would move next door and raise their taxes.

[rooboy]

3. And put Allah in the Pledge of Allegiance. n/t

[LibeMatt]

4. And take their guns...

SSIA