There is a film called "Amigo", by John Sayles, that tells the story of American Soldiers who occupy a village in the Philippines during the Philippine/American War in 1898. It didn't get very good reviews for the historical subject matter was over the heads of many film reviewers. The story so resembled actions in Iraq and Afghanistan that reviewers felt that the film must be anachronistic, but it wasn't ... and that was the whole point. In terms of the counterinsurgency model nothing has really changed in 100 years. "Hearts and Minds" has always been the name of the game, but when you are dealing with complex cultures that soldiers on the ground don't fully understand it is impossible to win a "Hearts and Minds" campaign.
America's colonial experience in the Philippines lasted from 1898 to1946 and was such a success it has been all but removed for US History books. In the Philippines, the reward for 40 years of military occupation and colonial nation building was the Bataan Death March, and incarceration of American civilians at the University of Santo Tomas during Japanese occupation ... even Douglas MacArthur couldn't design a successful defense of the Philippines. Note how we never cite the Philippines as a shining example of American success.
The thought process behind Afghanistan and Iraq failed in the Philippines and Vietnam already, but we stubbornly refuse to learn the lesson, so here we are.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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