Forbbidden Book (3 of 3)

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Is it any wonder that many of the African American soldiers sent to the Philippines
in segregated units turned against the war? More than a dozen Black G.I.s defected
to the side of the Filipino independence movement. Nine soldiers wrote an open letter
that read "the time has come to break the silence so that you will see the
folly of ...fighting these people who are defending their country against the cruel
American invasion...." Cruel was an understatement: U.S. General Jacob Smith
- a veteran of the Wounded Knee massacre of Native Americans - articulated official
policy by ordering his troops to "take no prisoners" and "kill everyone
capable of bearing arms... that means ten years of age."

The second most striking set of images are those portraying the large anti-imperialist
opposition movement that developed within the U.S. The Anti-Imperialist League,
founded in 1898, grew to a nationwide force with chapters in every major city; notables
of the anti-imperialist cause included renowned writer Mark Twain, Hull House founder
Jane Addams, journalist Joseph Pulitzer, first NAACP president Moorfield Storey,
numerous senators and representatives and even Democratic Presidential candidate
William Jennings Bryan. Derisively labeling these anti-imperialists "aunties"
and portraying them as cowardly old women when not showing them stabbing U.S. soldiers
in the back, pro-war cartoonists spared no sexist or racist taunt in ridiculing
their targets. The "National Democratic Bed" - showing candidate Bryan
embracing the caricature of an African/Filipino man - is only one among many cartoons
that would make Karl Rove drool with envy.

Indeed, echoes of today's headlines resound from virtually every page. Reading about
the "reconcentrado pens" used to hold Filipino prisoners conjures up the
image of Abu Ghraib. Learning that the U.S. military orchestrated a provocation
on the eve of a key congressional vote (and that McKinley manipulated news of it
to win support for annexation by a single ballot) literally screams with parallels
to Bush and Weapons of Mass Destruction. And substitute the image of an Iraqi or
Palestinian for a Filipino in just about any cartoon and you get a close match to
one or another image published in the U.S. press within the last three years.

Denial runs deep in U.S. society. But every day there are people opening their minds,
questioning the national myth, and searching for the truth. The next time you run
across someone embarked upon that journey, give them a copy of The Forbidden Book.

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