history is written by who?
 

THE USES AND ABUSES OF HISTORY
Fri Oct 24, 7:59 PM ET
By Richard Reeves

WASHINGTON -- "America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people," said President Bush to a joint session of the Congress of the Philippines last week. "Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule."

Unfortunately, we then killed more than 200,000 Filipinos. Almost all of the dead were civilians, killed in the two years after we liberated them from the Spanish in 1898. One of our generals there, a cranky Civil War veteran named Jacob Smith, told his men: "I wish you to kill and burn ... I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."

"How young?" asked Maj. Waller Tazewell Waller (cq) of the U.S. Marines. "Ten years and up," said Gen. Smith.

None of this was secret at the time. American soldiers -- we sent 70,000 there after the Spanish colonial authority surrendered when Commodore George Dewey's fleet sailed into Manila Harbor -- wrote of the details in letters to hometown newspapers. Here are samples quoted in a new book, "Flyboys," by James Bradley:

"We bombarded a place called Malabon, and then went in and killed every native we met, men, women and children" ... "This shooting human beings is a 'hot game' and beats rabbit hunting all to pieces" ... "Picking off niggers in the water is more fun than a turkey shoot" ... "I am probably growing hard-hearted, for I am in my glory when I can sight my gun on some dark skin and pull the trigger. Tell all my inquiring friends that I am doing everything I can for Old Glory and for America I love so well."

Back in Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt was calling that "the most glorious war in our nation's history." The Filipino victims he dismissed as "a syndicate of Chinese half-breeds."

George W. Bush knows all this. At Yale, he got a B in History 35, a study of that era, taught by John Morton Blum, a biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. And if he has forgotten, he could look up some of it in Bradley's book. This president's father, Lt. George H.W. Bush, U.S. Navy, is a hero of "Flyboys" (and of a CNN documentary with the same title), which includes a frightening section on American anti-Asian attitudes and Japanese anti-American and anti-Christian attitudes that fed slaughter, massacre and even cannibalism in World War II.

We are, more often than not, relatively decent people in war and occupation. The Spanish rulers of the 7,000 islands of the Philippines were worse than the Americans, and there was a significant anti-war movement at home between 1899 and 1902. On July Fourth of that year, Roosevelt declared victory, after 4,234 Americans were killed in guerrilla attacks during the first three years of occupation. Mark Twain proposed that the stripes of Old Glory should be black and red. Gen. Smith was court-martialed and Maj. Waller tried (and acquitted) on murder charges. During Smith's court-martial, one of his aides said, "If people know what a thieving, treacherous, worthless bunch of scoundrels these Filipinos are, they would think differently."

That quote, in Stanley Karnow's 1989 book, "In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines," illustrates one of the more important historical lessons of occupation: Not only do the occupied inevitably come to hate the occupiers, the occupiers come to hate the occupied. Last Wednesday, a New York Times story by John Tierney -- the headline began "Baffled Occupiers ..." -- quoted a GI watching over a Baghdad market as saying: "If you really want to know, I'm sick of being in a country where lying is the national pastime."

A second important lesson is this: The occupied always prevail in the end, because they are there forever and the occupier one day will go home. It may take 50 years, which is how long we stayed in the Philippines, but that is not much time in history.

History can be revised or downplayed for a time -- in Manila last week, everyone talked about new public schools and the 550 teachers sent from San Francisco in 1901 rather than the 70,000 occupiers -- but reality emerges at embarrassing times because history is forever. As another American president, Harry S. Truman, once said: "The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know."

------------------------------------------------------------

where are wankers speech writers and advisers when he needs them? you would think by now he would know better than to say anything that wasent writtin for him by someone else and triple checked.

not to dis yer thread dood, but i felt mr. reeves said a bit more so i posted it.

The answer is A, historians.

Re: history is written by who?
 

First , who writes history? The winners do.



His second important lesson.....well the Brits have occupied Ireland for 800 years and there is still no sign of the evil doers leaving.

I think a few left in 1922. Also, Gerry Adams is likely going to be deputy first minister in the next NI executive. Give it time.

the correct answer goes to Sinner.

Who?

the stonecutters

we doooooo we doooooo:beer:

The answer and the horrible truth: LV15 :er: :eek: :sus:

Greedy, Tambourine, dis the president all you like, I won't stop you. But that wasn't the point of this essay. Mr. Reeves wasn't attacking Bush, he was using him as an example. He wasn't bashing American patriotism, he didn't decry the evils of occupation, and he hasn't accused anybody of revising the history books. This essay is a warning, not an argument. "Not only do the occupied inevitably come to hate the occupiers, the occupiers come to hate the occupied." So far this is the only logical reason I have heard for bringing our soldiers home. The soldiers are there to keep the peace while Iraq rebuilds, and Richard Reeves obviously understands that attitude. "We are, more often than not, relatively decent people in war and occupation." He isn't comparing our soldiers to Com. George Dewey's marauders, but he is suggesting that if we don' take care then history may repeat itself.

the thing about history that has always been a problem with me is.. it is always focused around wars...

his·to·ry ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hst-r)
n. pl. his·to·ries
A narrative of events; a story.

A chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people or institution, often including an explanation of or commentary on those events: a history of the Vikings.

A formal written account of related natural phenomena: a history of volcanoes.

A record of a patient's medical background.

An established record or pattern of behavior: an inmate with a history of substance abuse.

The branch of knowledge that records and analyzes past events: “History has a long-range perspective” (Elizabeth Gurley Flynn).

The events forming the subject matter of a historical account.

The aggregate of past events or human affairs: basic tools used throughout history.

An interesting past: a house with history.

Something that belongs to the past: Their troubles are history now.

Slang. One that is no longer worth consideration: Why should we worry about him? He's history!

A drama based on historical events: the histories of Shakespeare.

oh puh-lease, quit the tacky attempt at being some kind of neo-intellectual, you can find timelines centered around the development of cheese or the history of tree bark production, typing "timeline of wars" into google will produce the type of timline you show, a timeline showing history centered around wars, wow! who'd a thunk it?!?

excuse me..but world history wich i presume was being talked about..is centered about wars...its what is taught in schools....general history...
fucking pair of fools..:uu:

Food Timeline

did you know that Spam was first introduced in 1937, 2 years before the start of world war 2?

my point was if you go looking for "timeline of war" you'll find just that, google search : timeline of US history , now sure wars and battles are mentioned but it's not "focused" on war.
ok...you and who else?

comeon this is kindergarten stuff ...
 

ok you were mainly talking about US history then..

that food timeline is pretty interesting inky

Re: comeon this is kindergarten stuff ...
 

your uncanny ability to state the obvious is breathtaking.

It's all right to be ignorant, but it's stupid to make a career out of it.