Sunday, White House aides had to scramble when Bush, speaking without a prepared text, falsely claimed that the U.S. government was prepared to “go forward with” a new package of military training programs with Indonesia.
Yesterday, Bush had his staff checking their history books with yet another screw-up before an international audience.
“America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people,” Bush said in a speech to the Philippine Congress. “Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule.”
That’s a nice sentiment, I suppose, but it’s completely wrong.
The United States did not work with Filipinos to “liberate” the Philipines from colonial rule. Just the opposite — Filipinos fought against the U.S. over colonial rule.
As Al Kamen explained today, “In the war, or ‘insurrection,’ depending on your point of view, more than 4,000 U.S. troops died — about 1,000 in battle and the rest from disease and other causes. At least 16,000 Filipinos were killed in combat, and another 200,000 died from disease or starvation, according to a reference work called Warfare and Armed Conflicts. The Philippines remained a U.S. colony until 1946.”
I can only imagine what the Philippine Congress thought of Bush after that one. I suspect they know their nation’s history well enough to know that Bush is clueless.