...the lesson you'll learn from him is uncertain.
It is not in fact the case that Pershing ended Islamic terrorism in the Philippines for 35 years. The story to which the President is alluding is almost certainly false.
(UPDATE: I stand corrected. According to Pershing's autobiography of the period, which was unpublished until the University of Kentucky Press put it out in 2015, he did in fact bury Moros with dead pigs:
So that's news to me -- when I studied the period, that was understood to be a falsehood.)
Pershing did have a fairly successful stint as military governor. He instituted a number of changes (including not 'shooting people with pigs blood,' but actually donating land for the construction of mosques) that helped bring people closer to the government. He did succeed in transitioning to a civilian government, although it still needed armed guards everywhere.
Partially this was because he decided to disarm the Moros, which led to a series of pretty punishing battles. Nor was he successful: I've been to these places, and the Moro's aren't disarmed yet.
What actually ended the Moro rebellions against Americans in the Philippines was the loss of the islands to the Japanese, though. Then the Moros fought the Japanese instead. Since the end of WWII, there have been regular resurgences of violence. Pretty much anybody who decides they're going to go down there and run the place ends up fighting the Moros. There have been successful counterinsurgencies, but they don't last because ultimately the Moros just don't want to be ruled by anyone else.
So maybe the lesson is, "Certain people should probably be left alone." I'd like it if that was the lesson government officials took from this, but I doubt that it will be.
UPDATE: A good longer piece from 2012 on Pershing in Mindanao, from Small Wars Journal.
6 comments:
I wonder how well the Spanish did in their 4 centuries of ruling the Phillipines. I suspect they left the Moros alone, as they did the Mapuche in Chile.
"He did succeed in transitioning to a civilian government, although it still needed armed guards everywhere."
It still does.
My wife's grandfather was there with Pershing. He was a cavalryman, and came home with a big Japanese sword he'd taken off a Moro warrior, who'd taken it off what I suppose must have been a samurai (or someone who'd taken it from a samurai himself during the Meiji Restoration).
The "dipped bullets in blood" story still seems to be false, by the way; and the "35 years" claim is just fantasy.
Reading the feed confirmed for me that I was right not to have a Twitter account.
Yeah, that's a good call. Twitter is destroying America.
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