Conghaileach
5th June 2003, 13:21
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 29, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEATH ROW: THE UNCOUNTED DEAD
["Our boys were sent off to die with 'beautiful ideals' painted in front
of them. No one told them that
'dollars and cents' were the real reason they
were marching off to 'kill and die.'"
--Gen. Smedley Butler, 1934]
It is easy for millions of Americans to believe that the Iraq war, or for
that matter, any other war this century, was fought for high-sounding
ideals, like freedom and democracy.
It is easy. Yet it is wrong.
In the earlier half of the 20th century, when the U.S. invaded the
Philippines, it proclaimed its duty as bringing "civilization" to the
benighted peoples of the islands. There, Filipino rebels were waging an
independence war against the Spaniards and were on the verge of winning
their freedom. Lo and behold, the U.S. stepped in and proclaimed that
they too were on the side of "freedom." Spain, reading the handwriting
on the wall, rather quickly capitulated. Under the fog of "freedom,"
however, lay other motives, ones expressed openly by Indiana Sen. Albert
Beveridge, who announced:
"The Philippines are 'ours forever ... and just beyond the Philip pines
are China's illimitable markets....' The Pacific is 'our ocean.'"
[Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States" (1995), p. 306]
The Filipinos clearly had other ideas, for they had just ended a war for
independence, after all, with one waning empire. They were in no mood to
join another. But the Americans, using their media and their politicians
to promote "civilization" as their "mission," brought in troops, who
were ordered to "Burn all and kill all." The U.S. military killed over
600,000 Filipinos to "civilize" them. The great American novelist, Mark
Twain, so outraged by the American actions there, joined the Anti-
Imperialist League, became its vice president, and would later exclaim:
"I have seen that we do not intend to free but to subjugate the
Philippines and so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the
eagle put its talons on any other land. ... I have a strong aversion to
sending our bright boys out there to fight with a disgraced musket under
a polluted flag." [Philip Foner, "Mark Twain: Social Critic" (1958), p.
260]
For decades the U.S. supported the corrupt and brutal Marcos regime in
Manila, where freedom was a joke and democracy an illusion. It took a
broad rebellion by Filipinos to remove him from power.
The native dead from the Vietnam War rarely enter American debate, even
though some 2 million men, women and children lost their lives. When
U.S.-backed dictatorships unleashed their CIA-trained death squads on
their own people, killing hundreds of thousands since the 1970s in
Central America, who among us bothered to even count these peasants?
When the U.S. bombed its way into Panama in 1989 to remove Noriega--and
install its own kleptocracy--thousands of Panamanians were slain during
the invasion. How many? The U.S. hadn't bothered to count.
During the first Gulf War, in 1991, the U.S. killed an estimated 150,000
Iraqis. But like the Panamanians, the Central Americans, the Filipinos
before them, they were faceless, nameless and largely forgotten. In U.S.
military parlance, they are "collateral damage."
So too, the bombing campaign of the most recent Iraqi War was brought to
you by Raytheon, Lockheed and the imperial press corps, complete with
uniforms. They can tell you how many bombs were drop ped, where they
were dropped, indeed how much each bomb weighed and cost. Yet who they
hit, and how many they killed is not news. As non-Westerners, as
nonwhites, they are expendable; forgettable.
Do you really think that there will be a "democratic" Iraq?
What if a majority of Iraqis want to found an Islamic state? U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had already announced that such a
polity would be "unacceptable." "Democracy" thus may really mean, "Do
what the Americans want you to do."
For the better part of a century, the words "democracy," "civilization"
and "freedom" have been code words for something else indeed. They have
been code words for Empire. And what is Empire? It is the looting and
exploitation of the world for profit. Let us return briefly to Sen.
Beveridge for the flavor of the Philippines invasion and slaughter, to
reflect the real reasons for that war, as well as an inkling of the
latest invasion of Iraq:
"The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. ... No land
in America surpasses in fertility the plains and valleys of Luzon. Rice
and coffee, sugar and coconuts, hemp and tobacco ... The wood of the
Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come.
At Cebu the best informed man on the island told me that 40 miles of
Cebu's mountain chain are practically mountains of coal. ...
"My own belief is that there are not 100 men among them who comprehend
what Anglo-Saxon self-government even means, and there are over 5
million people to be governed.
"It has been charged that our conduct of the war has been cruel.
Senators, it has been the reverse. ... Senators must remember that we
are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing with
Orientals." (Zinn, p. 306)
This greed, this pervasive racism fueled American colonialism at the
beginning of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, if you look far enough, it is with us still.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not
allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,
NY 10011; via e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe wwnews-
[email protected] Unsubscribe [email protected] Support the
voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
Reprinted from the May 29, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FROM DEATH ROW: THE UNCOUNTED DEAD
["Our boys were sent off to die with 'beautiful ideals' painted in front
of them. No one told them that
'dollars and cents' were the real reason they
were marching off to 'kill and die.'"
--Gen. Smedley Butler, 1934]
It is easy for millions of Americans to believe that the Iraq war, or for
that matter, any other war this century, was fought for high-sounding
ideals, like freedom and democracy.
It is easy. Yet it is wrong.
In the earlier half of the 20th century, when the U.S. invaded the
Philippines, it proclaimed its duty as bringing "civilization" to the
benighted peoples of the islands. There, Filipino rebels were waging an
independence war against the Spaniards and were on the verge of winning
their freedom. Lo and behold, the U.S. stepped in and proclaimed that
they too were on the side of "freedom." Spain, reading the handwriting
on the wall, rather quickly capitulated. Under the fog of "freedom,"
however, lay other motives, ones expressed openly by Indiana Sen. Albert
Beveridge, who announced:
"The Philippines are 'ours forever ... and just beyond the Philip pines
are China's illimitable markets....' The Pacific is 'our ocean.'"
[Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States" (1995), p. 306]
The Filipinos clearly had other ideas, for they had just ended a war for
independence, after all, with one waning empire. They were in no mood to
join another. But the Americans, using their media and their politicians
to promote "civilization" as their "mission," brought in troops, who
were ordered to "Burn all and kill all." The U.S. military killed over
600,000 Filipinos to "civilize" them. The great American novelist, Mark
Twain, so outraged by the American actions there, joined the Anti-
Imperialist League, became its vice president, and would later exclaim:
"I have seen that we do not intend to free but to subjugate the
Philippines and so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the
eagle put its talons on any other land. ... I have a strong aversion to
sending our bright boys out there to fight with a disgraced musket under
a polluted flag." [Philip Foner, "Mark Twain: Social Critic" (1958), p.
260]
For decades the U.S. supported the corrupt and brutal Marcos regime in
Manila, where freedom was a joke and democracy an illusion. It took a
broad rebellion by Filipinos to remove him from power.
The native dead from the Vietnam War rarely enter American debate, even
though some 2 million men, women and children lost their lives. When
U.S.-backed dictatorships unleashed their CIA-trained death squads on
their own people, killing hundreds of thousands since the 1970s in
Central America, who among us bothered to even count these peasants?
When the U.S. bombed its way into Panama in 1989 to remove Noriega--and
install its own kleptocracy--thousands of Panamanians were slain during
the invasion. How many? The U.S. hadn't bothered to count.
During the first Gulf War, in 1991, the U.S. killed an estimated 150,000
Iraqis. But like the Panamanians, the Central Americans, the Filipinos
before them, they were faceless, nameless and largely forgotten. In U.S.
military parlance, they are "collateral damage."
So too, the bombing campaign of the most recent Iraqi War was brought to
you by Raytheon, Lockheed and the imperial press corps, complete with
uniforms. They can tell you how many bombs were drop ped, where they
were dropped, indeed how much each bomb weighed and cost. Yet who they
hit, and how many they killed is not news. As non-Westerners, as
nonwhites, they are expendable; forgettable.
Do you really think that there will be a "democratic" Iraq?
What if a majority of Iraqis want to found an Islamic state? U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had already announced that such a
polity would be "unacceptable." "Democracy" thus may really mean, "Do
what the Americans want you to do."
For the better part of a century, the words "democracy," "civilization"
and "freedom" have been code words for something else indeed. They have
been code words for Empire. And what is Empire? It is the looting and
exploitation of the world for profit. Let us return briefly to Sen.
Beveridge for the flavor of the Philippines invasion and slaughter, to
reflect the real reasons for that war, as well as an inkling of the
latest invasion of Iraq:
"The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. ... No land
in America surpasses in fertility the plains and valleys of Luzon. Rice
and coffee, sugar and coconuts, hemp and tobacco ... The wood of the
Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come.
At Cebu the best informed man on the island told me that 40 miles of
Cebu's mountain chain are practically mountains of coal. ...
"My own belief is that there are not 100 men among them who comprehend
what Anglo-Saxon self-government even means, and there are over 5
million people to be governed.
"It has been charged that our conduct of the war has been cruel.
Senators, it has been the reverse. ... Senators must remember that we
are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing with
Orientals." (Zinn, p. 306)
This greed, this pervasive racism fueled American colonialism at the
beginning of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, if you look far enough, it is with us still.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not
allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,
NY 10011; via e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe wwnews-
[email protected] Unsubscribe [email protected] Support the
voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)