The American Spectator

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p> FROM MANILA TO BAGHDAD br> Re: William Tucker's Iraq and Counterinsurgency : /p>

There was another factor about the Philippines -- the German navy was waiting outside Manila Bay, waiting for us to leave. And if Germany hadn't taken the islands, does anyone believe Japan would not have, a society growing as militaristic as Germany?

p>I'm not saying the war was worth it -- but there were a lot of hard decisions to make. br> -- John Lockwood br> Washington, D.C. /p>

I would be happy if you could pass on the following to William Tucker, who made a very good comparison between the American campaign in the Philippines, and the current mess in Iraq.

For a little of the dark side of all that, see The Military Order of the Carabao and Swish of the Kris, about the Americans fighting the Moros, who, 100 years later, are still classified as "Terrorists." They invented suicide fighters 100 years ago, but nobody remembered their history.

I don't agree that America has a manifest destiny to rule anybody, and I very much dislike, as an Englishman, being tagged here in the Philippines, constantly, as an Americano. But that's only a personal opinion.

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