The American Spectator

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Staying the Course

4.5.07 @ 12:01AM

FROM MANILA TO BAGHDAD
Re: William Tucker's Iraq and Counterinsurgency:

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?

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

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.

Kipling was a good pote (sic) but was out-kipled by a cockroach (see here).
-- Richard Parker
Siargao Island, The Philippines.
(My website is about the island and its people, coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my fancy at the time. You might notice I quote Kipling's pome, in the Siargao guide section.)

William Tucker has set himself up as this generation's Henry Kissinger, advising us of the unwillingness of the American people to deal with the hard realities of foreign affairs.

The original Kissinger advised Richard Nixon that Americans would be disinclined to make the sacrifices and expend the patience needed to defeat Soviet hegemony. I've often wondered at the degree of chagrin he must have felt upon seeing Ronald Reagan lead us to victory over the USSR. Apparently he learned nothing, however, for he has recently declared the Iraq war un-winnable.

So it is with William Tucker, who left for embedment convinced the war was un-winnable, and who has arrived home with his opinion intact. Along the way he tried to convince our forces they were fighting in vain, I wonder with what degree of success. Perhaps during WW II the Battle of the Bulge would have convinced him of the futility of attempting to finish off the Nazis.

His advice to us, reduced to essentials, consists only of this: "It's going to be a tough job, so give it up, never mind the effect that failure in Iraq will have on fanatical Islamists around the world. Take the easy way out, America. Surrender now so as not to risk losing the 2008 election. So what if before we're through with the terrorists we'll have paid for Iraq many times over."

Shortsighted? The word is too mild. Tucker shows no foresight at all.
-- Richard Donley

William Tucker's otherwise excellent "Iraq and Counterinsurgency" is marred by his mistaking Commodore (later rear-admiral) Matthew Perry, commander of the 1852 expedition to Japan for the victor of the Battle of Manila Bay, Admiral George Dewey, in 1898 also Commodore, but later rear-admiral.

Tucker also errs when he says "The Philippines were an isolated country on the other side of the world while Iraq is a cauldron of ethnic and sectarian conflict smack in the middle of the most volatile sector of the planet." This suggests that the Philippines were culturally and confessionally homogeneous, which could not be farther from the truth.
-- Jeff Ewing

ROMNEY ROCKS, PART I
Re: David Hogberg's Mitt's Epiphanies:

Letter to the Editor

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