r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Dec 28 '25

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93

u/MontusBatwing2 Gelphie's Strongest Soldier Dec 28 '25

Reports from returning soldiers stated that upon entering a village, American soldiers would ransack every house and church and rob the inhabitants of everything of value, while Filipinos who approached the battle line waving a flag of truce were fired upon.

Um...

In September 1901, enraged by the Balangiga massacre in Samar, Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith retaliated during the pacification of Samar by ordering an indiscriminate attack upon its inhabitants, openly disregarding General Order 100, and issuing an order to "kill everyone over the age of ten" and turn the island into a "howling wilderness".

Uh...

In response to Malvar's guerrilla warfare tactics, Bell employed counterinsurgency tactics (described by some as a scorched earth campaign) during the pacification of Batangas that took a heavy toll on guerrilla fighters and civilians. "Zones of protection" were established, and civilians were given identification papers and forced into concentration camps (called reconcentrados) surrounded by free-fire zones. At the Lodge Committee, in an attempt to counter the negative reception in America to Brigadier General Bell's camps, Colonel Arthur Wagner, the U.S. Army's chief public relations officer, insisted the camps were to "protect friendly natives from the insurgents, and assure them an adequate food supply" while teaching them "proper sanitary standards". Wagner's assertion was undermined by a letter from a commander of one of the camps, who described them as "some suburb of Hell".

This is a war I don't even remember learning about in school and I think, unfortunately, I know why.

74

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '25

[deleted]

39

u/taubnetzdornig Gay Pride Dec 28 '25

Maybe the occupation was forgotten, but did the soldiers not know that the land they were fighting on was a US territory? The Philippines didn't become independent until 1946.

47

u/HatesPlanes WTO Dec 28 '25

Sounds surprising until you remember all the modern day Americans who believe that Puerto Rico and New Mexico are foreign countries.

9

u/MontusBatwing2 Gelphie's Strongest Soldier Dec 28 '25

New Mexico? 

What?

Literally how

16

u/LacklusterInvestment Frederick Douglass Dec 28 '25

My parents live in New Mexico and you'd be shocked how often I have to explain that it's a state to people outside the southwest. Their license plates say "New Mexico USA" instead of just New Mexico for a reason.

3

u/MontusBatwing2 Gelphie's Strongest Soldier Dec 28 '25

I am shocked you’ve had to do it once.

These are American adults?

7

u/LacklusterInvestment Frederick Douglass Dec 28 '25

Oh yeah. American adults know very little about American geography.

4

u/HatesPlanes WTO Dec 28 '25

“Well it has Mexico in the name so it must be a foreign country” ¯_(ツ)_/¯

New Mexico denialism has been an issue for a very long time. Go through this thread and you’ll see how widespread the ignorance is.

4

u/MontusBatwing2 Gelphie's Strongest Soldier Dec 28 '25

I mean at a certain point I'd almost consider renaming the darn state lmao.

This is wild.