Many are declaring Bush’s Iraq policy a failure and ready to wash their hands of the whole affair. Max Boots in his book, The Savage Wars of Peace, present historical precedents that shows that we have seen this all before. A difficult occupation abroad combined with significant domestic opposition at home. At the turn of the last century, America was involved in a quick and relative bloodless war. The Spanish-America war lasted not much longer than the second Iraq War and when the smoke clear, America found themselves with an Empire. Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam along with the Philippines were now in the hands of United States. President McKinley became a reluctant imperialist and there were many in his own Party leaders screaming for annexation. By McKinley's own recollection, a night of prayer led the way to the President final decision to annex the Philippines and commit American troops to the island.
As Max Boots observed, “There were also more practical reasons for grabbing the Philippines. The race for colonies was in full swing and Americans feared that they would locked out of the Asian Markets…the War and Navy departments warned that it was impractical to confine the U.S. presence to Manila and the naval town of Cavite; if a European empire or Japan gobbled up the rest of the islands, those American outposts would become indefensible.” During Admiral Dewey attacks upon Manila, a German Fleet shadowed his fleet and there were legitimate fear that if the Americans did not annex the Philippines, then someone else would.
The American army began to work on a series of improvements including sanitary conditions and vaccinating the inhabitant but the Filipinos had no desire to be under American control, even if the Americans would be benevolent benefactors. They wanted their independence. In the United States, the annexation of the Philippines engendered massive political resistances which included former President Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain, and Andrew Carnegie. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie offered to purchase the whole Island so he could set the Philippines free of American rule.
In 1899, the Philippines resistance led by Emilio Aquinaldo began. The Filipinos army numbered 80,000 and outnumbered the American army. During the 1900 campaign, the occupation became an issue and the Filipinos army intensified their campaign before election with the idea of swinging the election to the anti-imperialist William Bryan. As the campaign progressed, the Republicans painted Bryan as weak on defending American interest in the world and ran away with the election.
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