Bush’s Philippines model for Iraqi “democracy”

Bush’s Philippines model for Iraqi “democracy”
By John Roberts
29 October 2003

In the course of his address to the Philippines Congress on October 18, George Bush invoked the Philippines as an example of US-sponsored “liberation” and democracy.

The US, Bush stated, was “proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people”. It had “liberated the Philippines from colonial rule” when it invaded the Spanish-held archipelago in 1898. Drawing a direct parallel with Iraq, the president told the assembled Filipino politicians: “Some say the culture of the Middle East will not sustain the institutions of democracy. The same doubts were once expressed about the culture of Asia. These doubts were proven wrong nearly six decades ago, when the Republic of the Philippines became the first democratic nation in Asia.”

Notwithstanding Bush’s rhetoric, the 105 years of American domination over the Philippines stands as an ominous warning of what the US ruling elite intends to accomplish in Iraq. The example of the Philippines demonstrates that, as far as Washington is concerned, a “democratic” Iraq would be nothing but a semi-colonial client state, extending unconditional support to US domination of the Middle East and facilitating unhindered exploitation of the country’s resources by American corporate interests.

--snip--

American public opinion was manipulated into believing the US war aim was to “liberate” the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific. The invasion was preceded by a concerted press campaign demonising the Spanish for their tyrannical and brutal colonial rule. The New York newspapers World and Journal, owned by the publishing tycoons Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, played a major propaganda role, helping create the conditions for President William McKinley to declare war on Spain on April 21, 1898. McKinley seized upon the sinking of the US battleship Maine in Havana harbour as the pretext, although the explosion on the Maine was most likely caused by a spontaneous combustion in the coal bunker next to the ship’s magazine.

--snip--

On December 21, 1898, Washington formally annexed the Philippines as a US colony. By February 1899, open fighting had broken out between Filipino independence fighters and American troops, who were ordered to slaughter the very people they were told they had been sent to “liberate”.

The outgunned Filipino forces were overcome by US military might, but conducted a determined guerilla war from November 1899 until the Americans declared victory in April 1902. The US military crushed the resistance with a campaign that knew few restraints. An estimated 200,000 Filipino civilians died as a result of famine and American reprisals, while some 69,000 Filipino fighters were killed. The US military lost 4,234 dead. Resistance to the American occupation continued among the Muslim population on the island of Mindanao until 1914.

The years of direct US rule over the archipelago were characterised by ruthless exploitation that retarded—and continues to retard—the country’s economy. A policy of free trade turned the islands into a dumping ground for American manufactured goods, preventing the development of local industry. Philippines production was geared to producing raw materials for the US.

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/phil-o29.shtml

And summary of what is being attempted in Iraq today.

McKinley was shot, too.