Quote:
Originally posted by Eric_aka_RedEyes
Do not try to justify your comments by claiming that you made
them only because you care about innocent lives. Never once in our history
have we committed troops to war for the purpose of taking innocent lives.
We do it to protect innocent lives, even yours. If the world leaders of the
late 1930's had the vision and courage of our present Commander in Chief,
perhaps the evil men who caused the death of millions in WWII would have
never had the opportunity to harm a soul.
The potential loss of millions of lives in the future at the hands of
today's evil men necessitate action.
|
Strong rhetorical skill, but to suggest that we do not act in self interest reeks of brain effluvia:
Finally, there's the morally suspect case of the Spanish-American War. When Cuban rebels rose up in 1895 against their Spanish colonizers, Americans sympathized with the Cubans, and many favored entering the war to help drive Spain out. But it took the 1898 explosion of an American ship, the Maine, which President McKinley had sent to Havana to protect Americans there, to bring the United States into combat. The blast, which killed 260 crew members, was probably caused by technical problems on the ship, but that wasn't evident at the time. The American public instantly became convinced of Spanish malevolence and demanded war. The United States invaded not just Cuba but <font size=3>the far-flung Philippines, also a Spanish colony. By the war's end, the United States had become a full-fledged imperial power, with rights to the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.</font>
We also made an effort to rid the philippines of their indigenous population:
Back in the Philippines, 11,000 ground troops were sent in, and an uneasy alliance between insurgent Filipino and U.S. forces led to Spanish surrender August 14. Although the Filipinos initially appreciated the U.S. role in helping evict their Spanish rulers, tensions mounted as it became clear that our interest there had less to do with protecting democracy than it did with territorial expansion. Even before the peace treaty was signed, U.S. troops fired on a group of Filipinos and started the Philippine-American War, a vicious and ugly chapter in U.S. history that lasted until 1914. Openly racist views of the Filipinos underscored public debate and policy. The actual death toll will never be known, but estimates of the number of civilians that perished from famine, disease, and other war-related causes range from 200,000 to 600,000. In March 1906 an estimated 600 Muslim Filipinos - men, women, and children - were massacred over a four-day period under troops commanded by General Leonard Wood, who later became the Philippine governor general.
This war had started out as a very popular campaign, but by this time the shine had worn off and some brave citizens began to raise their voices in protest. Among them was the great American author Mark Twain. He pointed out the enormous contradictions between our "benevolent" foreign policy and its brutal consequences. As our involvement became
progressively more difficult to justify, and eventually came to be defended on the grounds that the U.S. could not retire from it without suffering "dishonor", Twain advocated the position that "An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war."
Mark Twain is as American as they come.