Here's a quote from the Philadelphia Ledger in 1901 about the war in the Philippines:
"Our present war is no bloodless, fake...engagement. Our men have been relentless: have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people, from lads of ten on up, an idea prevailing that the Filipino, as such, was little better than a dog, noisome reptile in some instances, whose best disposition was the rubbish heap. Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to "make them talk," have taken prisoner people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later, without an atom of evidence that they were even insurrectos, stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down as an example to those who found their bullet-ridden corpses."
Taking into account the stuff we've learned in our imperialism unit and in the imperialism debate, what kinds of lessons can we learn from American imperialism? Any one of these questions could apply for your journal.
- Is it worth the economic security to control the destinies of countries we can barely identify on the map?
- Are we sacrificing our democratic ideals when we take over other countries and pick their rulers for them? Why or why not?
- If we continue to worry about and depend upon oil in the Middle East, how will we ever develop clean energy sources that will get us off of our dependency?
- Is our dependency upon Middle East oil a security threat? Why or why not?
- When we are $8.659 trillion in the hole, how can we afford to be everywhere around the world?
Pick a question or come up with another angle on how we can learn from our past history of over 100 years of imperialism.
Editor's Note: We didn't amass this monstrous $8.659 trillion dollar debt just on Iraq alone. It started in 1969 when we were fighting the War on Poverty and the War in Vietnam at the same time. Then, we started outspending the Soviet Union during the 1980s to win the Cold War. That didn't happen until 1991. After 1991, our government was huge and wasteful, but still provided essential services. President Clinton signed a huge tax package to begin chipping away at the national debt in 1993, and by 1999, taxes along with a booming economy helped the government start to slowly pay down some of the debt. That all changed w/ President G.W. Bush.
Plus, there is security to think about when America acts as we do. Are we acting in our own best interests for vital resources, strategic locations, and the security of the nation?
- G.W., your devil's advocate!
40 comments:
we cannot do things like we are doing now. like you said our country is in major debt and we cannot afford to try and rule iraq when we do not need to. it is against our morals as americans to take over a country and try and rule them because the people of iraq have rights too, why do we need to strip them of their rights and make them american citizens? to me i think that this war is completely pointless because why is it seriously needed? I can see why we might want to go over there( to take the oil) but i mean we, as americans, have thought of e85 which is a corn based fuel. Personally i just feel that everything that is going on right now including Iraq is just pointless because we have had options to swerve out of it but Bush does not want to take them and follow through with them. So what we are doing now in my opinion is just completely wrong.
-Michael McDonald
(6th hour)
I believe that it is not worth our economic stability to take over small countries. Our government often say that they take over countries because of either the governments are communistic, or that the people are very poor. How can the U.S judge another country on their people being poor when we have millions of people right at home that are poor. The U.S focuses too much attention on other countries when we need to be focusing on our own well being. Our economy is horrible and we are trillions of dollars in debt so in my oppinion, the U.S is taking advantage of other countries in order to try to get out of the "hole", but we have yet to realize that it isnt working.
Jasmine Montgomery
5th hour
I think that it is pretty ridiculus that we are spending that much money on the war in Iraq. I understand that it may coast a lot of money to be over there, but that much is just riduculus, specially when there is MANY other things going on in the world and mainly the U.S. that, that money could be going to towards. For example, the goverment and people are allows complaning and talking about the poverty level in the U.S. Well spending $8.659 trillion doesnt help anyone. That much money could easaly be split up and be spent towards somthing like poverty. Another thing is i recall that there were problems finding that money to help with the katrina pronblem, well another example of what that money could be towards. Even if some of it is saved and put away just incase there is every anything like katrina again, instead of spending that much money on a war that we arent looking so good in.\
-Jordan
I don't believe that it is worth the economic security to control small countries that we can barely identify on the map. This could give a bad reputation for just trying to take as much land as we want. It is not setting an example as what we are trying to perceive. Many people from other countries already view us as democracry giants trying to conquer the world. This might not be what we think in our minds but it could seem that way if you are looking in from the outside. No matter the intentions we have, many misconceptions can be viewed from others. An example of this is that I believe President Bush had his heart in the right place when we went to war with Iraq but he was maybe just misunderstood or didn't think everything through to the fullest extent. So many things could go wrong, and I believe that the risk isn't worth it.
-Mariah Van Ermen
6th Hour
i think we are sacraficing democratic ideals by taking control over countries and picking their rules because by us picking their rules we are basically changing the way people live in that country.
thats not right to change the way someone live because they might not adapted or get used to the rules so some might break them and they are risking themselves getting put in jail or something of that nature. so i would have to say that we are sacraficing democratic ideals.
~eric wynns~ 5th hour
I believe that it is not worth the economic security to control the destines of countries we can barely identify on the map. It is unfair to the American citizens, although; some a lot of Iraq is in poverty, it is unjust because we have people in America who live in poverty as well. America should not be judging Iraq on their poverty level when we have so many people who live on the streets here in our own country. We are trying to control another country who has not asked for our help. We should be helping America’s poverty rate decrease not Iraq’s. America should focus on our problems first before assisting other countries who may need our help. We are risking millions of dollars in Iraq and our country is going in debt. Next, we are going to have so pull America out of debt. It is much easier to spend money then to gain it back and once we lose it, we’ve lost it forever.
Evie C.
6th Hour
I also think that it is totally pointless to have a war against Iraq. First of all it isn’t a good idea to spend so much money on way against a country such as Iraq. The United States is in major debt already so why spend more? Then the United States has a lot of other problems too such as the Katrina hurricane. Instead of spending all that money I would spend that money into charities and the school systems in order to increase the technologies and help other poor people in the country. Furthermore it is against the morals of the United States to rule a country after taking over the country. Then there is also another way to get to the oil. For example trade oil against something, rather than just having another brutal war that is pointless. Last, as a world power, I wouldn’t just take over small other countries, instead I would help other countries. My opinion is that the war in the middle east is pointless.
Ken M 6th
- Is it worth the economic security to control the destinies of countries we can barely identify on the map?
To answer the question above, it isn’t worth the economic security at all. In the debate, I voted option 2 for the reason that I don’t believe in imperialism. Not only is it completely unjust to commit crimes in foreign countries just to prove our control but also the fact that we are inflicting the same horror on other countries that Britain inflicted on us. They wanted to prove their control by taking over the thirteen colonies and ultimately, it ended up in our fore fathers having to write the Constitution. Now, after all of that, we still think that going into and controlling another country, setting up a government and terrorizing that same nation all for economic security is the right thing to do? What we did in the Filipino-American War was wrong. You’d think our leaders would understand that by now.
-Stephanie N, 5th hour
From previous imperialistic countries, the United States should use the past history to prove that imperialism comes with a price. According to statistics, most countries view us to be a demacratic giant, whereas we see ourselve to be "Johnny Apple-Seed" spreading our democractic views across the world. Using our democratic rights is much differenct than chosing the rights for countries we take over. Why should the United States chose the government and leaders for countries that are supposed to stand for democracy?
I support our goverment, but I do not understand why our country is in a huge debt. The Iraq War is one of the most brutalist wars our country has ever seen, with suicide bombs and other surprise attacks against our government. The spread of terrorism has moved across the world with our move on imperialims in Iraq.
Leah C. 6th Hour
I do not feel it is worth the economic security of our country to take over other countries that are barely visible on a map. Spending over eight trillion dollars to spread democracy is not worth it. If fact, trying to spread democracy in these ways are more imperialistic than anything. Recently, the United States has gone into Afganistan and Iraq. Most people have forgotten about Afganistan, but there are still soldiers there and nothing has happened. The capturing of Saddam Hussein was a relief, but many other dangerous leaders are still there and the country is ruins at this point. So really, the United States still hasn't learned from the lessons of past imperialism. It is hurting our economy, many countries now hate us and believe we are too imperialistic, and we are still dependent on the Middle East's oil. Honestly, I don't think that the United States will ever start to learn until George Bush is out of the White House. Until that day, things will keep going as they are today.
I don't think it is worth our economic stability to take over small countries. We may think that by taking over a small country we are helping them, but we might actaully be giving our selves a bad reputation. Countries may think we are using them for their land, and not becasue we actually want to help. I also think we have no place in telling another country what to do when we have so many of our own problems in America. In my opinion, I think the U.S. doesn't want to face the fact that America is in debt so we try to help others to forgot about our own problems.
-Shayna Stillman
6th Hour
I do not think that it is worth our economic security to control the destinies of countries we can barely identify on the map. Our country is already in a lot of debt, and the Iraq War is not making it any better. I also agree that we are sacrificing our democratic ideal when we take over other countries. Us picking the ruler for their country goes against what democracy is. If we are going have our country as a democracy then we should help other countries become democracies also. We are doing the opposite of what we as a country believe in. It is almost like we are telling other countries “do as I say, not as I do”. I also think that our dependency upon the Middle East oil is a security threat. Since we are so dependent on oil in the Middle East we started this war and it has caused us many problems.
-- Claire M
5th hour
I think we can learn from our past lessons of imperialism. Weather we choose to learn from them or not is another issue though. Sometimes i think we may get too proud about our status in being a super power, so we try to overtake other countries. Honestly, this whole war is pretty rediculous and the president isn't helping. This situation is unneeded, unnecessary, and draining us morally and ethically and basically making us (the U.S.) look like idiots. Overall, i think we can learn from past lessons, it is just the choice of our country not to.
-Lauren Schraeder/6th
I'm not completely sure that we can learn from the lessons of past imperialism. Our country has many problems and we arent really taking care of them. Instead were making problems in other countries and then helping them fix it. For instance, the war in Iraq. Bush decided to have us, the United States, go into Iraq to get Sadam Hussein. Once we got him, it just started creating more problems. We didnt leave Iraq, we still havent left Iraq. i dont understand why we cant leave when we came and got what we wanted already. I'm guessing it has to do with them and their oil. They are known for one of the countries that have the most and best oil. But as i was saying, just thinking of that doesnt really let me have hope for our country. Once i see that we can take care of our own economic issues, than i'll know that we can learn lessons from the past.
Rhema S.
6th
If this whole war is about oil, then in my opinion we need to find another oil source. After reading that quote from the Philippine war it just doesn't seem worth it. To go over to Iraq and to be killing all those inicent people. And for what? Oil? We are too dependent on the Middle East when it comes to oil. This just goes to show that we are in need of a more stable source. As a country we need to learn from our past. We need to stop taking over other countries even if we are trying to help them. Most of them i bet never even asked. So who are we to take over somes land and decide on their leaders. America is way into debt, but not just with money. So overall, America needs a change for the better.
Maddie M.
(6th hour)
If the US keeps trying to enforce a democratic government into Middle Eastern countries because they believe that if the countries adopted a democratic society, then it will be easier to trade for oil. This way of thinking is not supporting the idea of a cleaner energy source. One way of decreasing our dependency of oil is just to use less. When you use less oil this will help our environment to be cleaner. If the government-rationed oil to people then people would have to stop, think and readjust their lifestyle. For example if people would live closer to their place of work then they would have less travel time and would burn less gas getting their. Or if people used public transportation or walked to get to places this would conserve lots of energy. If you look at a European lifestyle they conserve a lot more energy then the average American because they walk and use public transportation to get to places. Over all by doing this they reduce some health problems such as obesity. But in the end you can say all these pretty words and people will agree, but nothing really changes. What’s really going to have to happen for the US to stop it’s dependence on oil is that oil will have to sky rocket in price which people won’t be able to afford. Then US hand will be forced to find another alternative.
Emily Betts
5th
we should learn from our past experiences with imperialism. We went into Iraq for selfish reasons, and we are taking away so many peoples right by just going to Iraq and invading, and killing them. We beleive in freedom, but we're not even giving the people in Iraq that much. They should be able to govern their country how they want, and not have to have us trying to take over them for oil.
-Chasey millar
6th hour
I do not think that it it worth the economic security to control the destinies of countries we can barely identify on the map. Just like in the Filipino-Aamerican War, America took over a country for our own selfish reasons. We did not even care about Flilipino country or its people. All we wanted was a place to trade with China and a cheaper military transportation area. If you really think about it, the take over of this country was against some American beliefs and morals. We are supposed to be spreading freedom and democracy. Instead we were controlling a whole country of people's lives who did not even want to be controlled in the first place. We did not really care about them so why take over their country so that we can do a half decent job in their government? So, in my opinion, it is not worth our economic security to control the destinies of other countries.
Brittany Clay
6th Hour
i believe the fact of the horrid truth of the great shadow of hope and help the USA has spread across the world has evaporated. now the country faces the fact of some cowboy calling himself the president... he took us into war and we are now in check. if we pull out of the war, we will be mocked. if we are to stay in. more people will die. this war is shaping up to be another vietnam. vietnam is a clone of this war as a matter of fact. we went in hoping to be welcomed with open arms. what we got was a welcome but we have overstayed it. i say this is a blind war because we do not know who we are fighting. the terrorists have no uniform or mark what so ever. we are taking their land. they will fight to the death because they have nothing to lose. this debt must be healed slowly bur surely and we need to pull out of the war... i would rather be mocked then have more weeping mothers in our world today because of the fact that the president sent their kids to their death.
- August Orlow
hour 5.
Well, obviously America can’t learn from our past lessons of imperialism. Americans think too highly of themselves and think their invincible and powerful. To me, America usually only thinks of itself, and thinks it’s so powerful and great so it can step over other countries and take over. So what we’re a super power? Honestly, the war with Iraq was a major NO NO! It’s nonsense. Absolutely ridiculous! It’s pure RUBISH!(my dad uses that word a lot) Not to mention, the president is insane! And why did this war start? Because, us greedy Americans thought their was oil in Iraq and we wanted to get in there and get all of it before anyone else did. No wonder most Europeans hate Americans! Because we’re bloody idiots. Putting on a brutal show just for oil? I mean, I thought we went in Iraq because we really wanted to help the people and give them hope and care, but no, I find out it was because we wanted oil! It was because we thought that oil was there and we wanted it so badly. So we weren’t even thinking about all those hurt people. We were thinking about ourselves. This war proves what idiots we really have become. I mean, shouldn’t we have already learned from our past about imperialism? Shouldn’t we have thought about our morals before butting in some random country? Or did the president forget that we are based on the freedom and liberty of others? America has to make a choice. But they’ve already have had plenty of time to choose and they still haven’t seemed to choose the right one. Well, it’s our loss. And it’s only time that the rest of the world start to fight, not with us, but against us. Well, im glad im not fully American. Europeans have brains and have learned- now they think before they act…. Americans act before they think.If they keep this up they'll deffinatly end up in the dictionary, having 'Americans' mean -complete loonatics.
-Luciana D.
America has made our biggest mistake over and over again. We are so focused on intimidating the world so we can sustain our superiority, that we lose sight of our ethics, pure god-given morals. We are a selfish country. For example, we invade Iraq for their oil, disregarding their desires, and portray them like animals, when in reality, we are the true beasts.
Our destructive behavior has pushed us into a corner. We have made so many enemies in war, that even some of our allies aren't supporting us.
There are morals that as a country, we must aquire. The age-old saying stands true, "Look before you leap." We should consider the consequences of our actions before we make another mistake, because as we've learned, acting on selfish impulse never turns out well.
~Chelsea R.
6th Hour
I do not believe that it is worth the economic security to control the destinies of countries we can barely identify on a map. I believe that it is really pointless and very costly both monetarily and life wise. We go into little countries that have problems that are none of our business. We spend money sending troops and overthrowing the country. The president says that we are at war and yet when we bomb a part of the country, we spend more money helping out the citizens and rebuilding their country and its inefficient. It’s not right to do that to countries that cannot defend themselves and turn to having citizens kill troops we sent there for no reason. I would understand if the U.S. had proof of a country having weapons of mass destruction or there was a good reason for invading their territory, but when we are doing this kind of stuff for our own satisfaction and for the need to be greedy and take over little countries, then that is wrong and not worth economic security.
-Steven Haddad
-5th Hour
Yes, I think we can learn from the lessons of past imperialism. Because of the past takeover of the Phillipines, our economy has never been the same. Like now, the United States is trying to take over Iraq. We don't have the money to take over a country. And there isn't even a point in doing so. If we take over, what will be the whole idea of taking over? Iraq didn't need our help in the first place, so what's the point of still being over there? The United States has many problems here and don't need to worry about any other country's problems. We suffer every day with poverty and before the government fixes their poverty problems, we need to fix our own. We also need to work on our economy and not Iraq's economy.
P.S. President Bush will never realize that...and I can't wait for the 2008 election.
Eboni Bell
6th Hour
We handled both wars wrong. Many people died and gave up their lives for us. We did not follow through and keep the Iraqi's safe and same with Phillipinos. I feel like the war in Iraq is really no war at all or at least we are looking for a fight and prolonging the end to it for a very long time. I feel like what we are doing now is wrong. We should help other countries or poverty before invading another country.
Madelyn Polzin
6th Hour
I don't think that we should waste our economic security to control too small that are like a dot on the map. This could give a bad reputation for just trying to take as much land as we want but they might have good natural resources but we dont have to take over to get them. Many already see us as democracry giants attempting to take over the world. The way we think might not be the way other people think. No matter hat we try to do, many misconceptions can be viewed from others. An example of this is that I believe President Bush had right intentions to go to war but he didn't plan everythinh out and what he did plan he didn't for the future which lead to chaos. So many things could go wrong, and I believe that the risk isn't worth it.
Gil Clark 6th hour
i think we should let other countries be. we look so arrogant as well as ignorant when we try to control other countries. besides, why should we interfere with other countries and their problems when we can't even take care of our own? we should stop imperialization let alone lying about it bec. it will cause problems for us in the future.
elise lieberman
12/11/06
5th hour
the U.S cannot afford to be in Iraq. not only was cost much more than we expected. we have caused death to many soldiers and innocent civilians. as an American i find it agianst our morals that we are trying to rule another country. Because of our troops being stationed in iraq. we have loss many allies. many countries are pulling out of iraq because they don't support us. case and point we don't need to be there. 1. it cost the death of many lives. 2. we are not in an economic position to do this.
john Easter
5th hour
I think that our country needs to first worry about our self before we do other things like police foriegn country. We need to help them set up a government then leave them to do the rest them selves. In my opinion impearailism doesnt wor because it wont create allies it will create enemies becaus ethey might think were going do something sneaky or wrong. All this non-sense like the past wars and Iraq is not needed because we got Saddum and thats all we really needed besides oil and now that we have both of those things we can leave so all this is stupid.
~Ralph~
5th hour
I don't think that it was completely pointless to go to Iraq. I mean you can't just sit there and do nothing when a country that his having daily wars on the streets and also were cause of 9/11. But I think we are doing to much, and we need to come back. We are one as a whole in this world, so trying to help start them up with democracy and try to stabalize there country is not wrong. But when we have our own problems and the process in Iraq is pointless now, I think that we are starting to waste recources and maybe violate some of there rights. I am not a Bush fan but to extent he didn't mean any harm when he sent troops over, but I think now that nothing good has happened we need to focus on our country.
I think we should not have intrfered with Iraq. I don't think we should take over small countries because they are weak and they have things that we want. I really don't think that is right because we are messing up thousands of lives and we really don't care about the people as lpng as we get what we want. A good example of this was the war with Iraq. We cared more about the oil then we did the people.
Myles WIlliams 6th hour
I think we can learn from the past wars but we won't. This war againest Iraq proved that, we just somehow end up with presidents that have a thing for fighting. We had no business starting the Spanish war but we did. We had no business starting the war againest Iraq and we did. Everything that we did and our doing is pointless. And that goes back to the statement I made we can learn from these wars but we won't because we don't want to. We want to believe that were doing the right thing oh so what if thousands of innocent people are killed as long as we get what we want, so what if families have to suffer because their loved ones are out there dying it's okay because were fighting over nothing. Nobody half way care back then and we aren't going to change know. We never learn history has repeated it's self a lot of times but we never pay attention because we feel that were doing the right thing.
-Martia Bender
(5th hour)
To me it is not even close to being worth going and controling a country that is barely visisble ont the map. If a country is that small then they probably have little to know power. So why would we go and worry about them when we need to be worried about ourselves. We are more then $8 trillion in debt and we're out there trying to help other little countries when we need help ourselves. That just makes no sense to me and i dont know how it would make sense to anybody else.
*Mike A.* 6th hour
I believe that America shouldn’t waste money on trying to control other countries. We have enough problems already in America that need to be solved. We should take care of America before we go try and run someone else’s country and attempt to control them. We are far too concerned with trying to run and control these small countries, why should it matter so much to us when we have bigger problems to solve. Our democratic ideals are being sacrificed when we do this. It is going against our beliefs. If the war in Iraq is over oil then we should just find another oil source instead of losing lives, wasting money, and putting so much time and effort into the war. So that’s why I believe that imperialism is wrong, and we shouldn’t be so focused on trying to run other countries when the majority of the time they don’t even want our help.
~Brandi B.
6th Hour
-When we are $8.659 trillion in the hole, how can we afford to be everywhere around the world?
We can afford to be everywhere around the world because we are the U.S. Government. It’s kind of sad but true. We can almost do what ever we want, get what every we want and boss around as many people as we can. We are broke but we still go everywhere and spend money like its nothing. How do we get this money, where is it coming from, why don’t we try to solve this problem? Some body needs to step up and address that we have a problem. The first stage to getting something done is getting all the facts and stating the problem. Then you need solutions and ideas. Then you need to test the ideas and correct errors. We need a strong leader who can take charge and get the amount down. Almost 9 TRILLION freaking dollars. That’s insane and we shouldn’t get away with doing that.
-Jeff Kohl
6th Hour
I believe it is not worth our time and effort to take over small countries, by doing so I think we gain only another trade post and we occur more problems. I also think that we are spending way too much money on the war in Iraq. There are more important issues America should be addressing to. We are also $8.659 trillion dollars in debt right now, and we keep on pulling ourselves deeper. Over all I think that the United States has been wasting a lot of our time and money.
-Kellie H.
5th hour
in my opinion i think that we can take over another country. i think that we can take over another country as long as it is for a reason. like in the debate that we had in class. in class i was option one which was the option to take over the whole country. we needed that country to trade with other countries. if iraq will offer us opporunties that will help the united states then we should continue to be in iraq. but on the other hand we have to remember that the people in iraq are people and i think that we sould give them the rights that we have in the united states have. i think that it is unfair to not give them the same rights as the united states gives us.
Chris H.
6th hour
I think that the United States should focus in their own country instead of being more centered in other countries like Iraq. Also, I think that the US has enough problems without the war, so going to war is just asking for trouble. I think that instead of doing that, the United States should concentrate in paying off the huge debt it has right now. Other ways to spend the money instead the of going to war could be to improve the US education, poverty issues, or even rebuilding it’s reputation around the world which isn’t a very good one. Also, I think that the US should have money saved up for a natural disaster like Katrina. That way, we’d be prepared next time. Also this pointless war has caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. In conclusion, I think that the United States should worry about helping other countries and solving it’s own problems before it goes to war.
Bruno Rodriguez - 6th Hour
I don't think that George Bush has taken the right steps to help Iraq. I think that we can learn from the past and see how other wars had affected the U.S. and would now. I don't believe that we should be imperialistic and try and take over smaller countries just because of oil or something. I think it is wrong to take over a country without their consent for whatever reason. I think that imperialism is wrong. I feel that we should all look at what a bloody and awful war we had with the Filipinos and see that we never want that again. It's sad when you hear about American soldiers dying in Iraq and i hate hate it. I know that we can't just pull out right away and that there are important reasons for being there, I know that we can learn from the past and change certains things about what we are doing. I also don't want countries fearing us because of our imperialistic nature. Economically we don't have the instability for imperialism and I think we should deal with problems in the U.S. before anything else.
can we learn from past imperialism? parheps that question is pointless. the ultimate THING we learn from history is we learn NOTHING from history maybe the question should cann we ALL learn from past imperiasism why does it have with US we have to look into the past and remeamber we all deny what IS OUR past and look into to the fature without a clue
Yes, I believe it is a sacrific of our democratic ideas to take over a country and pick it's leader for them. Once we have taken over a place we never really get out of it again. We end up leading it through the person that we place in power and thus we then become a dictative nation. From what I have gathered just from over hearing comversations about politics over the years, our government uses the same excuses every time we go to take over another nation. Being something along the lines of, "We're going to free the people and set up a democracy for them" but then we have our military out there dieing for this cause and killing the people of that nation who don't want our help in becoming free or just don't want to be free. Also once we do set up a government there we end up controlling it because we place someone in to rule that follows our ideas and guidelines on how to govern a nation. Essentually that nation becomes a part of U.S. territory and doesn't truely gain it's own freedom.
Jon C.
5th hour
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