There are similarities between the Philippines insurrection and the present crisis in Iraq. In both cases, American governments underestimated the task in the post war and more American soldiers were killed in the post war than in the actual war itself. Both nations were located in vital parts of world and American goals involved eventual freedom for the people of those nations. There were questions of whether we provided enough troops to do the job. And finally, there were serious domestic oppositions to policies involved.
There are also significant differences. In the Philippines insurrection, American troops were actually outnumbered by the Filipinos guerillas whereas American armed forces in Iraq have a definite advantage in both weapons and number of soldiers over the terrorist army. The Filipinos insurrection had more support among the population than the present Iraqi opposition and most importantly, the present American soldier are better trained that the American soldier who fought in the Philippines.
As Max Boot makes clear in his book, there is no reason based on American own history that we can’t triumph. There is no doubt that Iraq is a mess but it is a mess in which we have the advantages. The Iraqi government is strengthening day by day and new institutions are being developed.
Russian, Israel, India, Turkey, Iraq and Spain have suffered terrorist attack. The world is slowly coming to grip with the fact that they are no longer immune from the Islamic fascist attacks. It doesn’t matter to these thugs if their victims are Christian or Muslim, no one is exempt.
So if you are feeling a little depress about what you read in the newspapers, just simply pick up this book. We have been through this before and we have triumphed. We can prevail again if we show the same resolve now as we did a century ago in the Philippines.
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