This is coolbert: During the "Philippine Insurrection" [1900], an order was issued by the U.S. General Miles. Miles issued an order that all males on a specific island in the Philippines were to be killed. This order was issued as an answer to an incident that precipitated the Fil-Am War. It seems a platoon of unarmed U.S. troops [deliberately unarmed at the behest of their commander], were set upon by Filipinos armed with bolo knives. Some of the U.S. troops were killed, some wounded, and some escaped unscathed. This action on the part of the Filipinos so infuriated this General Miles that he issued his infamous order. All histories of the Philippines written by Filipino authors seem to mention this order. What is not mentioned is that the order was not carried out. Upon hearing of the order, President Theodore Roosevelt countermanded the order with his own instructions that went something like, "you are not to carry out this order, and you are not in the future to make any further such orders, no matter what the provocation." That the commander-in-chief himself would issue such a countermanding of an order is most serious. Shows that from even a century ago, laws and rules of war and civilized behavior even in war time was the rule, expected of U.S. troops. This at a time when various world great powers, colonial powers, were going around the world trampling on their subjects in often an obscene manner. Says something about the U.S. and how we see ourselves. This should be kept in mind with regard to the latest stories out of Iraq about the mistreatment of Arab prisoners.

coolbert.