Teach America's History in the Philippines

When Globophobe was much younger, we spent ten years studying in the United States - from seventh grade through to university. We had grown up in the Philippines so it was not unusual for us to go to America to study. At the schools we attended in Massachusetts, we took two full years of American history, first in the seventh grade and again in the eleventh. Both times, we were surprised that the courses and the textbooks devoted little time to the American colonial experience in the Philippines. Our teachers were generally unaware that Filipinos who had launched a revolution for their Independence from Spain shifted their efforts to battle the American occupiers for about three years from 1898 when the Spanish-American War ended. Some 12,000 US soldiers were sent to the Philippines to subdue the local militias and insurgents who were waging what is known as the the Philippine Insurrection against the United States. Even though the war wound down by the end of 1901, limited conflicts on some islands continued until 1913.

Except for the three-plus years of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, the United States armed forces remained in the country until 1992, when Washington closed its major air and naval bases after the Philippine Senate rejected the treaty extending the American lease of its facilities and negotiations between the two governments broke down. The US military presence in the Philippines for nearly a century was an important factor in maintaining the stability of the country through the Commonwealth period before World War II and after Independence in 1946. The US bases were also crucial in ensuring regional security, notably during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It could be argued that the Philippine Senate's 1992 vote against the bases treaty marked the maturing of the Filipino nation. While Filipino governments have been rocked by coup attempts since then, Filipinos have sought to resolve their problems themselves, without the American military hovering.

If American schoolchildren in the past including George W. Bush at his exclusive New England boarding school had been taught about the US experience in the Philippines, particularly about the Filipino insurgency and how long it took to build the Philippine nation and a working, independent government which even today is still hardly a paragon of stability and good governance, perhaps the debacle in Iraq might have been avoided - or at least the potential for chaos post-Saddam better understood and anticipated. Consider Brent Scowcroft's essay in today's New York Times. Once the US got into Iraq, it landed itself into a messy situation that makes the Philippines seem like Singapore. There is no easy way out. And as in the Philippines, the US may be in for a century of military engagement in Iraq, particularly if it wants to keep the Middle East from blowing up. As John Kerry was trying to say when he botched that election campaign joke, those who haven't learned their history at school get stuck in a quagmire like Iraq.