People often compare the war in Afghanistan to Vietnam. While this makes sense, apparently there is another comparison that makes even more sense: the war between the U.S. and the Philippines.
The U.S. Had a War With the Philippines?
It’s an interesting read, especially for an ignorant person like me who’s never even heard of that war. The main lesson seems to be: you can win, but you need patience; the war in the Philippines was technically only three years, in fact it lasted 46 years. I doubt the American public has the patience to keep it up in Afghanistan for that long.
A surprising (and slightly worrying) number of commenters seem to agree with ‘Ed’:
In any war the goal has to be to defeat the enemy at any cost and in any way possible. There is no such thing as “values”, “justice”, “civil rights” or “political correctness” when fighting a war. You win and ultimately control the enemy you are fighting by defeating them so completely that they no longer have the ability or desire to fight. Only at that point will there be peace.
There is no winning of hearts and minds, there is no negotiating, there is no mercy and there is no civilized behavior. War is hell and you do not win and sovle a problem unless you make the enimies world a living hell. You do whatever you have to do to accomplish that goal. You kill whatever you have to kill to accomplish that goal. If a Nation does not have the guts and determination to win, then it is their world that will turn into the living hell.
In some ways, Ed has a point. But that kind of thinking will only cause more brutality and rob us of all humanity. It’s sticky situation, but one the U.S. has to see through- without resorting to the near-genocide of the Philippines-U.S. war.
The war "ended" with WWII? Yeah, right… as far as I know, the New People's Army is still holding sway over Central Luzon, Abu Something is running amok on Mindanao, and… okay, Philippine history is not my forte, but you get the point. To this day, there's several independence movements across the archipelago.
The lesson the US should take from the Philippine Insurrection and apply to Afghanistan is simple; find the strongest ethnic group and support them, and then let them kill everybody else. Karzai is the president because he represents one group; Abdullah Abdullah represents the Pashtuns, who tend towards the Taliban anyway. So, build up their army, pull us out of the Pashtun mountain regions, and let them have it.
Well, being half-Filipino I think I have some perspective on this. The group you refer to is the Abu Sayyaf. There's also the Moro Liberation Front (also dubbed MILF – *snicker*) and there are also lots of other little leftist splinter groups running around there.
The southern end of the island chain, mostly Mindinao and the area around the Sulu penninsula is home to a number of Muslim extremists.
General Emilio Aguinaldo, who led the war against the Spanish and subsequently against the U.S. is regarded as a hero in the Philippines. Mark Twain was an outspoken critic of the war and wrote a number of anti-imperialst essays denouncing the U.S. occupation of the Philippines. (If I recall, he was particularly incensed at Theodore Roosevelt's referring to the Filipino people as 'our little brown brothers' or somesuch.
Okay, so that said – the Philippines would have been royally fucked if the U.S. hadn't provided military assistance during WWII. Just sayin'.
But anyway – the Philippines and the U.S. have had a pretty odd relationship to say the least…
The Japanese had their Comfort Women. The Americans had their GROs (Guest Relations Officers). The difference being- the GROs at least got paid.
Being wholly Filipino, and having grandparents who fought in WWII, would agree that we were better off having the Americans in control back then.
And our rebel groups, extremists, private armies and what not – I'm not surprised to hear about their weapons being sourced through our government armed forces. But thats another story all together.