The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913

 

The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913, by James R. Arnold, is a well-researched and written book, about a time when America sought an empire outside of the confines of North America.  Many white Americans have problems seeing the white supremacy behind that ‘standard’ history of our country.  We are too close to it to see it with clarity. The task is much easier when we read this book, as the fight against the Moros is so far removed from our standard national narrative. 

The Roosevelt government viewed the Moros as not fully evolved, and this idea granted the United States the supposed right to use extraordinary force in “pacifying” them.  We see all the tell-tale signs of a western power subduing a ‘native’ people.  Massacres, indiscriminate killing, destruction of property, ethnic cleansing bordering on genocide.  In armed encounters with Moro warriors, their numbers of dead and wounded far exceeded the US by many orders of magnitude.

The strategic goals of this war were so very limited that they are forgotten today.  I doubt this war needed to be fought at all.  People died in large numbers for immediatate and forgetable goals.