The Comparison of the War in the Philippines and Iraq - Essay Example

Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars Samson Varghese Cultural factors that impacted military operations in the Philippine and Iraq wars When we compare the Philippine and Iraq wars, though both of the wars occurred in a time span of around 100 years, still we can see some common factors in both of them because of the fact that the United States was at the other end in both the wars. We can see that even after 100 years the attitudes of United States towards other poor countries has not been changed much. In both these wars the US has been criticized for intruding into the sovereignty of other states without having enough reasons or the cited reasons were not convincing enough to others. The war between Philippines and the US has started in February, 1899 under controversial circumstances, with its exact reasons unknown to anyone. The war officially ended on July 4, 1902. The revolutionaries in Philippines concluded that they could not compete with them, and turned to guerrilla warfare. The Filipino guerrillas used effective tactics and sometimes connected themselves strongly to the local civilians, but often they failed to sustain their successes. After two years of vicious, irregular warfare, the Americans prevailed. Political analysts say that the revolutionaries, Filipino guerrillas did not lose the war: the Americans won it.Americans mistakenly thought that the Philippines wanted to become part of the United States, when they approached by some Philippines leaders, to make them free from the colonial rules of Spain. Anti-imperialist movements claimed that the United States had betrayed its lofty goals of the Spanish–American War by becoming a colonial power, merely replacing Spain in the Philippines. Mark Twain opposed the war by writing articles in newspapers. “I thought we should act as their protector — not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars 2 Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas. That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. (Mark Twain) “It kept the Filipinos under colonial over lordship for another five decades and subjected them to American political, cultural, and economic domination. Exhaustively researched and engagingly written, The Philippine War will become the standard reference on Americas forgotten conflict and a major contribution to the study of guerrilla warfare” (The Philippine War, 1899-1902). Divided by geography, religion, language, race, and culture, the inhabitants of the Philippines were never able to unify to oppose foreign intervention. The social, tribal, and class divisions present in Filipino society prevented them from successfully uniting the people. On the other hand the Iraq war started in March, 2003, over the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq. Though the inspectors of United Nations searched every corner of Iraq they failed to find out any weapons of mass destruction. The military objectives of the invasion were; end the Hussein regime; eliminate weapons of mass destruction; eliminate Islamic terrorists; obtain intelligence on terrorist networks; distribute humanitarian aid; secure Iraq’s oil infrastructure; and assist in creating a representative government as a model for other Middle East nations. The invasion was a quick and decisive operation encountering major resistance, though not what the American, British and other forces expected. The Iraqi regime had prepared to fight both a conventional and irregular war at the same time, conceding territory when faced with superior conventional forces, largely armored, but launching smaller scale Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars 3 attacks in the rear using fighters dressed in civilian and Para-military clothes. This achieved some temporary successes and created unexpected challenges for the invading forces, especially the Americans. On April 9 Baghdad fell, ending Saddams 24-year rule. U.S. forces seized the deserted Baath Party ministries. Now everything is clear to the world. Saddam is no more and still there is no peace in Iraq. The deadline of the approval given by Security Council to the American troops to stay back in Iraq will be ended on December 31, 2008. America and the toy government in Iraq are trying to extend the deadline for 3 more years for mutual benefits. America wanted to exploit the wealth of Iraq and the toy government need the security of American troops. Now when we analyze the above wars, we can see that in both of them the reasons cited were not convincing and the declared objectives of the war not achieved. We can see some common aspects in both the wars when we compare them. America has again proved that they cannot refrain from their culture of colonialism by interfering in the recent matters related to Afghanistan and Iran. After the September 11 th terrorist attack on World Trade Centre, America got one more shot in their armory to attack other sovereign states. It is not a secret that America always wants to spread their wings wherever possible. In the Philippines war they proclaimed that their mission was to save the Filipinos from the Spanish colonial rule. But at the end of the war they ruled Philippines for another two decades by appointing a toy government just like what happened in Iraq. Though majority of the Iraqis were Muslims, there were lot of ideologies among them. In Philippines, most of the peoples were Christians and Muslims. So America has successfully adopted the policy of divide and rule in both the countries. They acted as the saviors Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars 4 for some communities to gain public support in both the countries. (Kurds in Iraq and Christians in Philippines). The American military successfully implemented a war strategy based on the cultural aspects in Philippines. Philippines are a country having people of different culture and religion. They took advantage of one community to defeat the Spain while rely others to sustain a toy government in Philippines. They utilized religion, race, cast etc. to exploit the situations. The same tactics they utilized in Iraq war and also in some other undeclared wars against others. We can think of the Afghanistan and Pakistan where they are successfully implementing the same strategy. In Iraq they gained support from Kurds using such activities. As the resources in America diminishing they wanted to exploit the resources of the poor countries. This is evident in both the wars. The oil resources and the pure water sources were attracted them towards Iraq rather than the said reasons. America has already got a report from their secret agencies that other countries such as China and India will emerge as the super powers by 2025. In order to sustain their place as the world police, they wanted to exploit others under the label of world savior. Another interesting aspect of American intrusion is the strange laws of the civilian government treating Iraqi people and American troops differently. The crime committed by the American troops outside their barrack cannot be questioned in Iraqi courts without America’s permission. From a liberalist’s point of view this is a clear case of intrusion over the sovereignty of a state. The discrimination in rules will encourage the American troops to commit crimes against the people of Iraq. The above rule itself underlines America’s dual nature while Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars 5 considering the civilian issues. The dominant nature of America is visible in the above rule. They treat civilians of their country and other countries indifferently. Every state has a responsibility to respect every other’s Sovereignty. If a problem prevailing in a state is beyond their control, and if they seek international assistance to rectify it, it should be done under the patronage of the Security Council. The Security Council should be free from all kinds of biases and prejudices and should act freely. Cultural …… Philippine and Iraq wars 6 Sources 1. The Philippine War, 1899-1902- Retrieved on 21/11/08 http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/linphi.html Read More