If you do a search on "Moro Rebellion" you'll get a variety of accounts which have two themes: a) the Moros and this general group of insurgents are historically one of the most bloodthirsty and tenacious opponents for every central authority in the archipelago, and b) the US didn't do much to help the situation in its colonial policies. This latter theme is generally gratuitously applied for various ideological reasons by anti American commentators, but elides over the fact that the colonial admininstrators were generally appalled by the fact that the Moro's captives' longevity was exceedingly short and their deaths brutal. In classic American style in combatting indigenous peoples, this brutality was returned with interest. Which brings us to the present, and the present has an eery similarity to the situation confronting Gen. Leonard Wood in 1903.
Posted by Tom Roberts 2/6/2002 2:00:38 PM