HISTORICAL PARALLELS

It is not surprising that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and the continuing resistance that American forces are encountering has prompted comparisons with the British in Mesopotamia (Iraq) after the First World War, the French in Algeria after the Second World War, the Americans in Vietnam, and the Israelis in the Occupied Territories. It seems to me that there is some merit in each of these historical parallels but perhaps the most telling one for American readers is the U.S. invasion and occupation of the Philippines that began in 1898. This led to the Filipino insurrection that lasted for ten years and was brutally suppressed by U.S. troops. The Philippines was not granted complete independence until 1946. Last week saw the publication of two articles describing this squalid episode in American history. William Loren Katz’s “Splendid Little War; Long Bloody Occupation: Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson” was posted April 28 at the Counterpunch website edited by that acerbic anarchist Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. And William Niskanen’s “Filipino Lessons for America Strategy in Iraq” first appeared in the Financial Times for April 30 and is now republished at the Cato Institute website.