Bush's Place in History [View All]

[maha]

... or, more accurately, Bush's place in history class, which is facing the corner and wearing a dunce cap.

To my horror, the "President" said this in a speech to the national congress of the Philippines this past Saturday: "Together, our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule."

That is so not what happened.

I read about this speech in an op ed by James Pinkerton in today's New York Newsday. Mr. Pinkerton does a pretty fair job of setting the record straight. Also, I discussed the "liberation" of the Philippines awhile back in my blog. In my opinion, America's little escapade in the Philippines a century or so ago remains among the ugliest, most brutal, and most depraved things this nation ever did. It's right up there with slavery, the massacre of native Americans, and Vietnam.

We sure as hell did not fight "with" Philippines soldiers to liberate the Philippines. Rather, after defeating Spanish forces in Manilla, the United States proceeded to fight a long and bloody war against Filipinos in order to take the place of Spain as colonial ruler. This adventure culminated in the massacre of at least 900 Filipino Muslims, including women and children, by U.S. troops on the island of Jolo in 1906.

I realize that if I stopped ten thousand Americans in the street today and asked them about the Filipino-American war, only a handful would have any clue what I was talking about. But, I am told, the people of the Philippines have not forgotten, especially Filipino Muslims. The island of Jolo today is a hotbed of anti-American Muslim extremism, and not by coincidence.

Back to Shrub's speech. The members of the Philippines national congress showed remarkable restraint by remaining in their seats and not rising up against Shrub to throttle him. However, I can't imagine our "President" reassured many people in the Philippines that we have their best interests at heart.

Not surprisingly, Filipinos staged some lively anti-Bush demonstrations during Bush's brief visit.

But ... WTF? Doesn't anyone on the White House staff have a brain? It's bad enough that the alleged President of the United States doesn't bother to learn his own country's history. But you'd think someone on the staff would be put in charge of reviewing the Simpleton's speeches for stupidity, especially after the State of the Union-Niger yellowcake fiasco.

I guess not.

Mr. Pinkerton ended his op-ed: "If Bush had known the history of Iraq, he wouldn't have made all these mistakes earlier this year. But, of course, if he had known the history of the Philippines, he wouldn't have given the speech he gave on Saturday."

It's one thing to be ignorant. But it's another thing to be in a position of power and then remain ignorant out of sheer laziness. Bush isn't even trying to do his job; he just coasts along, expecting his staff to make him look good and clean up his messes. Words cannot describe how disgusted I am.