‘Brooklyn Bridge Rusts, Awaiting Its First Paint Job Since 1991′

I recall that when I was working in the city in the late 1970s, at the time of the budget was near collapse and so was the Brooklyn and other city bridges, the point was made that at end of World War II, there were one hundred full time men maintaining the Brooklyn Bridge alone. In the late 1970s, it was three. The bridges benefited no specific special interest group, so they got nothing. [Ira Stoll, New York, “Brooklyn Bridge Rusts, Awaiting Its First Paint Job Since 1991,” August 29, 2006]

FRANK NATOLI
Newton, N.J.

‘Instant Gratification’

Seth Gitell [Oped, “Instant Gratification” August 25, 2006] claims that America’s three year battle against Philippine rebels in the early 20th century is evidence that insurgencies can be successfully handled if one stays the course.

The Phillipine Insurrection, which offers some eerie parallels to the current Iraq war, can also teach us other things. In 1898, as a result of Commodore Dewey’s victory over the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, America assumed control of the Philippines. No one had planned for this, and President McKinley, who was a devout Christian, said he prayed to “Almighty God for divine light and guidance.” In the end, McKinley decided that America would “Christianize” and “civilize” the Filipinos.

The American army entered into a brutal war against Philippine insurgents. who wanted to run their own country. An unfortunate part of the conflict was the army’s use of torture – unlike former American wars against white Europeans, fighting “brown” Filipinos removed all justifications for civility. The most notorious form of that torment was the “water cure.” (Dirty water was dumped into bamboo sections that were forced down the throats of prisoners. Soldiers would then jump on a prisoner’s stomach to force the water out. This procedure would be repeated until the victim either informed or died.

A great debate arose in the United States over the torture issue. By the time the controversy reached its pinnacle, in the early months of 1902, McKinley had been assassinated and replaced in office by Theodore Roosevelt. T.R. chose his close friend and ally Henry Cabot Lodge to mount a defense of the troops on the Senate floor.

Lodge ran Senate committee hearings on American misconduct in the Philippines. There was much testimony on operational tactics, but no exploration of the broader policy that lay behind them. The committee did not even issue a final report. On July 4, 1902, Roosevelt declared the Philippines pacified.

American casualties in the Philippine conflict totaled 4,374 soldiers, more than ten times the toll in Cuba. Approximately sixteen thousand guerrillas and twenty thousand civilians were also killed. The insurgency lay dormant for a few years but quickly reemerged. A low-level civil war has been under way in the Philippines ever since. Rebels have joined forces with Al Qaeda, and today the Philippines is one of the most unstable countries in Asia.

MARTIN LEVINSON
Forest Hills, N.Y.

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