November 8, 2005
The Echo of a President Posted by Julie M. Fenster at 05:00 PM EST A little more than a hundred years ago, when America was manipulated by false reports into fighting the Spanish-American War, the United States was left afterward in occupation of the Philippines. It would have been hard to find a country farther away or more foreign. As the years dragged by and our Army remained, the Philippines teetered constantly on the edge of anarchy, revolution, civil war—or something else even more chaotic than the unrest fomented by the occupation. Insurrectionists attacked American soldiers, often in gruesome style. Far from home, fighting a frustrating foe, the soldiers responded with the torture of captured Filipinos. By 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was President, the methods used by U.S. soldiers were becoming public knowledge. In response, some Americans expressed the belief that torture was necessary for the greater good. Some were outraged. Some didn’t care what happened to Filipinos anyway. President Roosevelt, who knew something about war, having been a soldier, and about courage as well, fired off a telegram to the American Commander in the Philippines: THE PRESIDENT DESIRES TO KNOW IN THE FULLEST AND MOST CIRCUMSTANTIAL MANNER ALL THE FACTS. . . . FOR THE VERY REASON THAT THE PRESIDENT INTENDS TO BACK UP THE ARMY IN THE HEARTIEST FASHION IN EVERY LAWFUL AND LEGITIMATE METHOD OF DOING ITS WORK. HE ALSO INTENDS TO SEE THAT THE MOST VIGOROUS CARE IS EXERCISED TO DETECT AND PREVENT ANY CRUELTY OR BRUTALITY. AND THAT MEN WHO ARE GUILTY THEREOF ARE PUNISHED. GREAT AS THE PROVOCATION HAS BEEN IN DEALING WITH FOES WHO HABITUALLY RESORT TO TREACHERY MURDER AND TORTURE AGAINST OUR MEN, NOTHING CAN JUSTIFY THE USE OF TORTURE OR INHUMAN CONDUCT OF ANY KIND ON THE PART OF THE AMERICAN ARMY.
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